CQ tv190

Contents
Contents............................................................................................................................................................ 1
Committee Contacts ........................................................................................................................................ 2
Chairmans Column......................................................................................................................................... 3
Enigma Rally.................................................................................................................................................... 4
Subscription rates............................................................................................................................................. 7
CQ-TV Commercial advertising rates............................................................................................................ 7
Deadline............................................................................................................................................................ 8
TM531 - A Packet of interference? ................................................................................................................ 8
A Little Spot of Invention..............................................................................................................................10
Digital Video - Questions and Answers part 1 .........................................................................................11
New Digital Test Card...................................................................................................................................13
Core decodes and displays up to eight MPEG2 streams.............................................................................14
ATVISS Amateur Television on the International Space Station ...........................................................15
Digital television in the USA ........................................................................................................................16
Digital Amateur TV tests started in Germany .............................................................................................17
Members Services ........................................................................................................................................18
BATC Publications........................................................................................................................................19
An introduction to PIC programming. Part 2...............................................................................................20
Members only! ...............................................................................................................................................24
Call sign generator .........................................................................................................................................24
Further uses of Plug Top Power Supplies ....................................................................................................25
Profiling RF Parabolas...................................................................................................................................28
Circuit Notebook 70 ......................................................................................................................................29
TV on the air ..................................................................................................................................................30
In Retrospect ..................................................................................................................................................33
Satellite TV News..........................................................................................................................................34
TANDATA Videotex Terminals - RAM Upgrade .....................................................................................39
24cms Filter Experiment ...............................................................................................................................41
Television Repeater in Trouble.....................................................................................................................44
Digital TV deal for Zoran and Infineon .......................................................................................................44
Post and News................................................................................................................................................45
Members adverts............................................................................................................................................47
For Sale...........................................................................................................................................................47
Wanted............................................................................................................................................................48
Index of Advertisers.......................................................................................................................................48
Edited by Ian Pawson, circuits drawn by Allan Robinson, proof read by Peter Delaney. All rights
reserved, all wrongs denied.
Copyright 2000 by the BATC and contributors.
Legal Niceties (the small print)
E&OE. Whilst every care is taken in the production of this publication, the editor accepts no legal responsibility for the
advice, data and opinions expressed. The BATC neither endorses nor is it responsible for the content of advertisements or
the activities of those advertisers. No guarantee of accuracy is implied or given for the material herein. The BATC expressly
disclaims all liability to any person in respect of anything and in respect of the consequences of anything done or omitted to
be done wholly or partly in reliance upon the whole or any part of this magazine.
The contents of this publication are covered by international copyright and must not be reproduced without permission,
although an exception is made for not-for-profit publications (only) wishing to reprint short extracts or single articles and
then only if acknowledgement is given to CQ-TV.
Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of published review, private study or research permitted under applicable
copyright legislation, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.
All copyrights and trademarks mentioned in this publication are acknowledged and no infringement of the intellectual
copyright of others is intended. Printed in Great Britain. ISSN 1466-6790
Notice to Contributors
Authors are alone responsible for the content of their articles, including factual and legal accuracy, and
opinions expressed by them may not reflect the editorial stance of the publication. Material submitted to CQ-
TV should not infringe the copyright of other writers or bodies. Articles remain the copyright of their authors
and following publication in CQ-TV, they may also appear on the BATC's web site and CD-ROMs, also in
other not-for-profit amateur publications. Contributions are accepted for publication on this basis alone.
Printed by Clipper Print Ltd., Unit 13, East Goscote Ind. Estate, East Goscote, Leicester, LE7 3XJ, England.
Telephone: 0116 260 9909.
2000 by the BATC CQ-TV 190 Page 1

Committee Contacts
BATC Chairman: Trevor Brown, G8CJS

Club affairs, Video tape library, Technical queries, especially relating to handbook projects. 14 Stairfoot Close,
Adel, Leeds, LS16 8JR. Tel: 01132 670115. E-mail: chairman@batc.org.uk
BATC General Secretary: Paul Marshall, G8MJW

General club correspondence and business. Library queries relating to the borrowing or donation of written material.
Fern House, Church Road, Harby, Notts., NG23 7ED. Tel: 01522 703348. Email secretary@batc.org.uk
BATC Hon. Treasurer: Brian Summers, G8GQS

Enquiries regarding club finances, Donations, and constitutional enquiries. 9 Prior Croft Close, Camberley, Surrey,
GU15 1DE. Tel: 01276 677879, Mobile: 0797 0417875, Email: treasurer@batc.org.uk
CQ-TV Magazine: Editor Ian Pawson

Anything for publication in CQ-TV, Articles, Review items, Letters to the editor, and other material except as
below. 14 Lilac Avenue, Leicester, LE5 1FN, England. Tel: 0116 276 9425, Email: editor@cq-tv.com
Photographs for the CQ-TV covers: - Please send any photographs by post, electronic images by email, to the
editor at the above addresses.
TV on the Air: - Graham Hankins G8EMX, 11 Cottesbrook Road, Acocks Green, Birmingham, B27 6LE. Tel:
0121 707 4337
Satellite TV News: - Paul Holland G3TZO, Chatterton, Chapel Lane, Threapwood, Nr. Malpas, Cheshire, SY14
7AX. Tel: 01948 770429, Email: satnews@batc.org.uk
CQ-TV Advertising Manager: - Trevor Brown, 14 Stairfoot Close, Adel, Leeds, LS16 8JR. Tel: 01132 670115.
Email: adman@batc.org.uk Members adverts for inclusion in CQ-TV should be sent directly to the editor and the
above address, either by post or e-mail.
CQ-TV Awards: - Bob Webb G8VBA, 78 Station Road, Rolleston on Dove, Burton on Trent, Staffs., DE13 9AB.
Tel: 01283 814582
Exhibitions
Graham Hankins G8EMX, 17 Cottesbrook Road, Acocks Green, Birmingham, B27 6LE.Tel: 0121 706 7384 Email:
exhibitions@batc.org.uk
Club Sales
Members Services: - PCBs, components, camera tubes, accessories, etc. (NOT PUBLICATIONS). Peter Delaney,
G8KZG, 6 East View Close, Wargrave, Berkshire, RG10 8BJ. Tel: 0118 940 3121. Email: services@batc.org.uk
Publications: - Handbooks, Back copies CQ-TV, and anything related to the supply of BATC publications. Paul
Marshall, Fern House, Church Road, Harby, Notts., NG23 7ED, England. E-mail: publications@batc.org.uk
Membership
Anything to do with membership, including new applications, queries about new and existing membership, non-
receipt of CQ-TV, subscriptions, membership records, data protection act. Dave Lawton, G0ANO, Grenehurst,
Pinewood Road, High Wycombe, Bucks., HP12 4DD. Tel: 01494 528899. E-mail: memsec@batc.org.uk
Club Liaison: - And anything of a political nature, co-ordination of ATV repeater licences. Graham Shirville,
G3VZV, The Hill Farm, Potsgrove, Milton Keynes, Bucks., MK17 9HF. Tel: 01525 290343. E-mail
g3vzv@amsat.org
Contests:- Richard Guttridge, G4YTV, Ivy House, Rise Road, Skirlaugh, Hull, HU11 5BH. Tel: 01964 562498
CQ-TV and BATC web masters

Anything to do with the CQ-TV web site Email: webmaster@cq-tv.com or for the BATCs web site. E-mail:
webmaster@batc.org.uk
Page 2 CQ-TV 190 2000 by the BATC

Chairmans Column
Its now approaching the time of year satellite up-link may be possible. I hope CQ-TV number one. While on the
when we hold the BATC rally, which you will all turn up and support Dave - subject of Paul Marshall's living room,
for the last three years has been at the I know how much work goes into one the mailing of CQ-TV has moved to
Sky Blue connection and managed by of these events. Brian Kelly's living room. This
Mike Wooding. Last year the expensive operation of putting the magazine into
venue resulted in a deficit on club www.cq-tv.com is now registered to envelopes and sorting it into press-
funds. These events are hard work for BATC. We have used CQTV as the stream order is a difficult task and I feel
not only the organiser, but all those name for our flag ship magazine from we owe Jill and Paul Marshall a vote of
who turn up the night before to put the outset and it would be a pity to not thanks for their past efforts as we do
tables and power in place, organise the have the website domain registration to Mike Wooding who did the task before
car parking the following day and stay accompany it. www.cqtv.com has them. Brian is facing a baptism of fire,
behind to clear up and stack the tables already been snapped up, and we have as we need to get this magazine printed
afterwards. To stand back at the end of a growing TV viewers pressure group and on your doorstep before 7 May,
all this and realise that you are several called The Campaign for Quality when the rally takes place in order to
hundred pounds down on your days Television who are fond of calling publicise it. The projected date for your
work is not the warmest of feelings. themselves CQTV. Within days of the doormat is April 27 so did we make it?
site registration coming through Ian While on the subject of dates, yes, I
This year we decided not to hold a rally had it up and running and linked into know that we clash with the Drayton
and put the money to better use. Dave www.batc.org.uk, our other site, and it Manor rally and that this is a favourite
McQue came up with a new plan, has already attracted several hundred with many of you. Sorry, even BATC
starting with a new smaller venue, visitors. organisation is fallible. Please give us
Bletchley Park, at was one-tenth the your support - a lot of midnight oil is
cost of Sky Blue. For those of you who Thank you all for all the suggestions of being burnt on the event.
have never seen this venue, and that whom you would like to see as the new
includes me, I suggest you visit their BATC President. The committee Last but not least, I have just heard
website www.bletchleypark.co.uk . discussed these at their last meeting and from Rob Ulrich who produces the
Bletchley Park has a very interesting hopefully we will have an Dutch ATV magazine Repeater, that
past in that during the Second World announcement for you in the next he is hoping to switch to an English and
War, it was known as Station X and ran magazine. Dutch language format. This is an
a very successful code breaking excellent ATV magazine and full of
operation including the famous There were no suggestions on how we ATV projects - many of which have
ENIGMA code. For those of you that get the pre CQ-TV 173 magazines onto been reprinted in CQ-TV. I hope many
have not seen the recent television the club CD. At the moment they exist of you will subscribe to this new
programmes on the subject, the as paper copies only, on the club version, when it becomes available,
ENIGMA machine was a mechanical bookcase in Paul Marshall's living while continuing your subscription to
device into which messages were keyed room. If we can get them onto CD CQ-TV, of course.
and the coded output could be set to ROM, they can be made available to all
one of hundreds of different the members and be preserved in a Trevor Brown, BATC Chairman
combinations depending on the more durable format that was not even email: Chairman@batc.org.uk
mechanical settings. The one weakness conceived when Mike Barlow wrote
was that what ever letter was keyed in,
it never came out as that letter, so by
looking for frequently used phrases and
checking none of the letters matched a
key or crib, as it was called, could be
generated and used to break the code.
Large mechanical and later electronic
(thermionic valves) machines speeded
up the process. The problem was how
to use the intelligence without letting
the enemy know that their code had
been broken. At the end of the war the
machines were destroyed, but much
work has been done on re-creating
these interesting machines. Dave has
arranged for visitors to the rally to tour
this interesting building for a small fee.
The rest of the rally is still being
worked on at the time of going to press,
so I hope the usual sideshow of OB
trucks and possibly even another

Enigma Rally
The BATC ENIGMA CONVENTION and

ANNUAL RALLY will be held in
Historic BLETCHLEY PARK on
Sunday the 7th of May 2000
The Gate will open for visitors from 10.00 hrs. Entry fee 1 per person-accompanied
children under 16 free.
Talk in on S22 by the Milton Keynes ARS that is based in the Park.
All indoors in the former CAA building, with two separate rooms for members to
display their personal equipment and discuss developments Although it is a Closed
weekend for the museum a special tour of the Cryptology trail will be available
during the afternoon for an additional 1 payable at the entrance to the trail in
Faulkner House.
Refreshments are available both indoors, in Faulkner house, and outdoors, with a
Bar in Hut 4
A members car boot sale at 5 per pitch is set out on the Faulkner House car park-
NO VANS.
Visitors will be free to visit GB2BP and some other specialist groups in Faulkner
House who have kindly agreed to open up for the occasion. The Military Group will
provide generator power for any OB vans.
Members wishing to attend a social evening in the bar on the Saturday are advised to
contact Tom G3LMX for a list of local establishments, SAE please! A buffet at 5 has
been arranged early booking essential.
Red Cross in attendance, Cadet forces as guides.
Maps of the site and travel information are shown on the following pages.
All maps and information reproduced by kind permission of The Bletchley Park Trust.

Where is Bletchley Park?
Bletchley Park is 200 yards to Bletchley
railway station in Milton Keynes,
Buckinghamshire. It is located just off the
B4034, Bletchley to Buckingham road.
Opening times
Bletchley Park is open every other
weekend 10:30am to 5:00pm with last
admissions at 3:30pm, and the last tour
begins at 3:00pm. For further details of
open weekends and special events, visit
the Bletchley Park Open Weekend Diary
Page.
Parking and Wheel Chair Access

Parking is free within the grounds of the
Road map of Milton Keynes
Bletchley Park. Bletchley Park has good
wheel chair access.
Refreshments
There are 3 refreshment areas, offering a good selection of hot and cold food. Groups of 20 or more are
welcome to telephone +44 (0) 1908 640404 if they want to make special arrangements.
Visiting Bletchley Park by Public Transport

By Rail
Fast efficient service to Bletchley Railway Station from:
London Euston, Milton Keynes Central (for InterCity connections), Coventry and Birmingham New Street.
Bedford Midland (except Sunday) for connections to London Thames Link, East Midlands and South
Yorkshire. For more information,
including train times visit the Railtrack
web site.
By Bus
There are buses and coaches from all
parts of Milton Keynes and beyond,
arriving at Bletchley Bus Station. On
leaving the Bus Station head towards
the Railway Station and take the
footpath to Bletchley Park, opposite the
station entrance.
Visiting Bletchley Park by Road

From the North or East
Find Saxon Street (V7, also marked
B4034) and South towards Bletchley.
Follow the signs towards Bletchley
Railway Station. Go straight across the
double roundabout into Buckingham
Road (B4034). At the Eight Belles public
house turn right into Church Green Road
then take the first right into Wilton
Avenue that leads into the Park. Road map of Bletchley

From the West
On the A421 look for the roundabout with the B4034 to Bletchley on the right, then look for the Eight Belles
public house on the left.
From the South West

Enter Bletchley on the A4146, and follow the signs for Bletchley Railway Station. At the double roundabout
on Buckingham Road turn left.
From the South

Enter Bletchley on the old A5 (V4) through Fenny Stratford, turn left at the Tesco store onto the B4034.
A map of Bletchley Park
Copyright 2000 The Bletchley Park Trust

Subscription rates
By the Membership Secretary value for money. I quote from the
Please note that the Surface rate
VHF/UHF column in The Radio
cover postage within the EEC.
The subscription rates to the BATC for Society of Great Britain's journal, As
the year 2000 are shown below. This is ever, this 60 page magazine is one of
the first price rise in many years but, the finest amateur publications you are We have also continued to improve our
with the continuing rising costs of likely to find. web site at www.batc.org.uk and this
production, printing and postage, a has proved to be very popular and is
price rise was inevitable. now attracting many new members.
Years Surface Airmail
However we hope you will agree that If your subscription is due shortly you
we have continued to improve the One 15.00 21.00 will find a renewal letter enclosed with
magazine with the change to the A4 this magazine.
format and use of colour within the Two 29.00 41.00
magazine and agree with us when we You hope you will continue to support
say that this still represents excellent Three 43.00 61.00 the Club and we look forward to
receiving your renewal.
CQ-TV Commercial advertising rates

Size Mono Colour
Quarter page 20 25
Half page 40 50
Full page 80 100
Discounts of 5% for 2-3 insertions and 10% for 4 and above apply to the above
prices.
If you would like to advertise in CQ-TV, then please contact our advertising manager,
Trevor Brown, 14 Stairfoot Close, Adel, Leeds, LS16 8JR. Tel: 01132 670115.
Email: adman@batc.org.uk
Free Internet Dial-

Dial-Up Accounts for
BATC members
Caladan Communications, a UK based Internet Services Provider are pleased to be able to offer BATC
members free dial-up access to internet e-mail and news services. Contact Chris Smith (G1FEF) for
more details:
E-mail: sales@caladan.co.uk Fax: 01933 666972, Web site: http://www.caladan.co.uk/batc
Or write to: Free BATC offer Caladan Communications 25 Dando Close, Wollaston, Northants,
NN29 7QB

Deadline
CQ-TV is published quarterly in Will all prospective contributors please Commercial adverts should be sent to
February, May, August and November be sure to read the Notice to Trevor Brown, the advertising
each year. The deadlines for each issue Contributors on page 1 so that you manager, at 14 Stairfoot Close, Adel,
are as follows: - understand the implications of Leeds, LS16 8JR. Tel: 01132 670115.
submitting an article for publication. Email: adman@batc.org.uk
February - 20th December, May - 20th
March, August - 20th June, November - The CQ-TV A4 size Word 97/2000 Members sales and wants should be
20th September. document template can be downloaded sent to the Editor. Email: editor@cq-
from our web site. Select the CQ-TV tv.com
Please send your contributions in as magazine link from the home page at
soon as you can prior to this date. http://www.batc.org .uk
TM531 - A Packet of interference?

By Geoff Mather G8DHE problem only occurred at the end of the This fault also appears to occur on
Email: geoff@g8dhe.cix.co.uk transmission was, initially, less than other copies of the rig in an identical
clear. manner, and on other makes of rig,
For the last few months GB3VR on the although not to the same level of output
South coast has been suffering from an Having now identified the problem as which use a similar setup.
interference problem. On a regular being a received RF problem some
basis a flash would occur lasting a few digging around with the scope to look The DXCluster group adding a 10-pole
milliseconds, spaced several seconds at the pulse in detail seemed called for. filter has mitigated the problem for
apart. Only the repeater receiver The pulse was in fact a nice triangular now, however a cure to the real cause
appeared to be affected, nobody else waveform going from above peak of the problem is still being sought. It
even in the locality of the repeater was white to well beyond the sync tip. would appear to lie in the timing of the
able to spot anything. The assumption Clearly the offending signal was switching paths in the rig and seems to
was drawn that the problem was local sweeping through the bandwidth of the affect at least two rigs in an identical
to the repeater and possibly caused by a receiver. But how and why would a manner. The question that now needs to
mains transient on the site itself finding narrow band FM rig on 1299MHz be be answered is, is this common to all
its way into the video path. generating a rather sizeable signal TM531s, or is it an affect of age
down at 1249MHz some 50Mhz away. (perhaps an electrolytic drying out?).
However early in February a local user Still 50MHz started to click a few bells,
of the repeater located very close to the after all its a common IF frequency? A If anyone has experience of these rigs,
repeater made some alterations to his quick check with the sysop of the Node or knows of a similar type of problem
aerials, and promptly started to suffer and the offending rig a Kenwood we would be most interested to hear
with his 6MHz sound IF being blocked TM531 was rapidly identified as the from them. In the meantime the
for a few seconds at a time. The cause. Its IF was found to be DXCluster group are making enquiries
duration of the blocking pointed 59.75MHz, and the cause of the with Kenwood as to any known
towards a packet signal being the problem was rapidly put down to the problems.
cause. Whilst diagnosing the problem fact that the Tx signal source and Rx
with several members of the group on LO were generated from a single PLL Finally if your repeater or simplex
air listening to the affects it was noticed that switched from the output channel is suffering a problem of this
that the interference that the repeater frequency on Tx down to the LO nature it might be worth taking a listen
was suffering coincided with the end of frequency on Rx. This change was to the local packet channels whilst
the transmission causing the blocking! obviously taking place before the entire watching your screens, that flash of
Tx strip was disabled and the aerial white might not be all it seems!
A scan of the local 23cms packet changover switching had occurred. The
channel rapidly identified the DXCluster group had the rig tested on Further info about GB3VR and this
transmission and its source a node in an analyser and virtually a full 10watts problem can be found on the Web at
the local DXCluster network. The of power was being generated as the the groups site :-
aerials of one link at this node were signal swept down the entire band (and http://www.videorepeater.co.uk/
pointing on a path almost directly in just outside!) before switching of the
line with the repeater, but why the transmit path and aerial occurred.

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43 Ironwalls Lane
Tutbury
Staffordshire
England
01283 813392
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drive a loudspeaker.
Baseband output. Pre-scalar output.
Very simple to construct. No setting up or
alignment required.
Only 42
Note: For 24cms a preamp is recommended.
Look out in a future issue of CQ-TV for the
synthesiser article for this kit.
Gunnmod2. The best selling Gunn diode or DRO

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video & audio deviation, output voltage & subcarrier.
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12 20vDC supply via co-ax.
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All prices include postage and packing. Cheque with order please.

A Little Spot of Invention
Dicky Howett finds fault (again). Productions Manager on 30 October Alexander say that three camera
1936, and the entire event was positions were used for both the Baird
Oh dear, and it was going so well, too. rehearsed on Saturday morning, 30th television system and the Marconi-EMI
Im referring to a new book about the October (without the dignitaries in system? And how did the
tragically short life of Alan Dower attendance of course, and the artists aforementioned electron camera get
Blumlein, the genius-inventor of stereo were not made up). The rehearsals went into the act? That would then have
and numerous master audio and TV well, and everything was set for the totalled FOUR cameras in the studio.
patents. The book, written by technical following Monday. Three camera As is documented quite clearly, two
author Robert Charles Alexander (all positions were used for both the Baird seperate studios were used, not
full names are given) is an exhaustive Television system and the Marconi- combined, as Mr Alexander seems to
and at times repetitious account of EMI system. For the Baird transmission imagine. Studio A was the Marconi
Blumleins work at EMI and latterly his Camera No.1, which was the Electron EMI studio with its three electronic
radar contributions, which ended with camera, was placed directly in front of cameras, and Studio B, the Baird studio
his death in 1942 aboard a Halifax the table at which the honoured guests with its 20 minutes of almost live
bomber, testing the new H2S blind would sit and speak; this was operated intermediate film, plus the small
bombing radar system. by Mr Truck and Mr Bliss. Camera spotlight studio for announcements
No.2, operated by Mr Wright, was for positioned near the Baird control room.
All fascinating stuff to be sure. This announcements. Camera No.3 was a
book will eventually become a prime reserve, fltted with a telephoto lens, and As time progresses and the pioneers
reference source and here lies the awful was operated by Mr Tong. die, accounts of televisions early years
problem. There are some glaring are increasingly prone to unfortunate
factual errors. Im not competent to That account is mystifying. A reading distortions, compounded by
comment on any of the technical of the programme-as-broadcast script unattributed fairy tales, political
aspects recalled of neither Alan (which I have in front of me) l reveals corrections and complete fantasy. In
Blumleins work nor indeed his family the mistakes. As is well known the final this respect, Robert Alexanders book
history. I take that all as read. However transmission arrangements were altered doesnt much help.
on page 194 theres an inexplicable and at the last minute to allow both tv
highly erroneous account of the systems (Marconi-EMI and Baird) to A final hilarious touch. In his book
opening of BBC Televisions high be used. The whole first week was Robert Alexander diligently lists the
definition service that took place on supposed to be on the Baird system, but opening programme technical crew.
the afternoon of Monday 2nd Nov. as was obvious, Bairds equipment was On camera Three which was a reserve
1936. unpredictable and not exactly high with a telephoto lense we had Mr Tong.
definition, (240 lines non-interlaced) Correct. Then on camera Two we had
Ill forgive the mistake of captioning and still relied as it did on outmoded announcements and Mr Wright. Right.
two photographs of Jasmine Bligh and Nipkow discs, instant film and photo As for camera One, well theres Mr
Elizabeth Cowell (page 192 &193) cells. The published programme in Bliss, but who pray is Mr TRUCK?
where Miss Bligh is Miss Cowell and Radio Times for that week in 1936 is Who wheeled him in? Actually, this
Miss Cowell is Miss Bligh. Obviously no guide at all. For example, the billed refers to the camera DOLLY and not an
a production error. Where things get Chinese jugglers, The Lai Founs were extra camera chap. Oh dear.
very misleading is when Robert dropped to accommodate the revised
Charles Alexander misinterprets totally, schedule. Thus, as listed in the original 1936
the opening of the BBCs electronic running order reproduced below:
television service and jumbles At a previously tossed coin the Baird
completely the proceedings. System was, at 3pm first to commence
Unforgiveably careless. For example, with an announcement by Leslie Cameramen
he begins by confusing Bairds Studio Mitchell from the small spotlight No. 1 - Truck - Bliss
B at Alexandra Palace and calls it the studio. Approximately forty five
Spotlight Studio, which was in fact a seconds later in Baird Studio B the No. 2 - Announcements - Wright
small annex to the main production Intermediate Film camera was cued. No. 3 - Reserve (Telephoto Lens) -
area. Of the opening programme, Two minutes later the vision was Tong.
Robert Alexander relates, switched to the intermediate film
system, which had already begun The Life And Works Of Alan Dower
At Alexandra Palace, all the last recording the opening speeches. Robert Blumlein. (The Inventor Of Stereo)
minute preparations were taking place; Alexander makes no mention of this Robert Charles Alexander. 1999. ISBN
explanatory notes were typed up by intermediate film system in his book. 0-240-51577-3. 640 pages illustrated.
D.R. Munro, BBC Television This is curious. Why, also does Robert Focal Press. 29.99

Digital Video - Questions and Answers part 1
By Adam J. Wilt Whats the difference between DV, 8mm divisions way of keeping its
DVCAM, and DVCPRO? customer base from defecting to DV.
DV is an international standard created By taking advantage of the massive
by a consortium of 10 companies for a Not a lot! The basic video encoding investments of 15 years in 8mm
consumer digital video format. The algorithm is the same between all three analogue camcorders and transports,
companies involved were Matsushita formats. The VTR sections of the the unit cost of Digital8 gear is kept
Electric Industrial Corp (Panasonic), DVCAM DXC-D130 or DVCPRO AJ- very low, roughly half of what a
Sony Corp, Victor Corporation of D700 cameras will record no better an comparable DV camcorder would cost,
Japan (JVC), Philips Electronics, N.V., image than the lowly DV format DCR- and its ability to play back legacy
Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd, Hitachi, Ltd., VX1000 at less than a quarter of the analogue tapes is worthwhile for those
Sharp Corporation, Thompson price (please note: I am not saying that with large libraries of 8mm. All
Multimedia, Mitsubishi Electric the camera section and lens of the Digital8 camcorders can record from
Corporation, and Toshiba Corporation. VX1000 are the equals of the high-end the analogue inputs (at least outside the
Since then others have joined up; there pro and broadcast cameras: there are EU), and all are equipped with i.LINK
are now over 60 companies in the DV significant quality differences! But the ports for digital dubbing and NLE
consortium. DV, originally known as video data recorded in all three formats connections.
DVC (Digital Video Cassette), uses a is essentially identical, though there
1/4 inch (6.35mm) metal evaporate tape may be minor differences in the actual
to record very high quality digital codec implementations). A summary of How good are the DV formats
video. The video is sampled at the same differences (and similarities) is tabled compared to other formats?
rate as D-1, D-5, or Digital Betacam in Technical Details. The consumer- DV formats are typically reckoned to
video -- 720 pixels per scanline -- oriented DV uses 10 micron tracks in be equal to or slightly better than
although the colour information is SP recording mode. Newer camcorders Betacam SP and MII in terms of picture
sampled at half the D-1 rate: 4:1:1 in offer an LP mode to increase recording quality (however, DV holds up better
525-line (NTSC), and 4:2:0 in 625-line times, but the 6.7 micron tracks make over repeated play cycles, where
(PAL) formats. (See below for a tape interchange problematic on DV BetaSP shows noticeable dropout).
discussion of colour sampling.) The machines, and prevents LP tapes from They are a notch below Digital-S and
sampled video is compressed using a being played in DVCAM or DVCPRO DVCPRO50, which are themselves a
Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT), the VTRs. Sonys DVCAM professional (largely imperceptible) notch below
same sort of compression used in format increases the track pitch to 15 Digital Betacam, D-1, and D-5. They
motion-JPEG. However, DVs DCT microns (at the loss of recording time) are quite a bit better than 3/4 U-matic,
allows for more local optimization (of to improve tape interchange and Hi8, and SVHS. On a scale of 1 to 10,
quantizing tables) within the frame than increase the robustness and reliability where 1 is just barely video and 10 is as
do JPEG compressors, allowing for of insert editing. Panasonics DVCPRO good as it gets, I would arrogantly rate
higher quality at the nominal 5:1 increases track pitch and width to 18 assorted formats as follows: D-5 (10-bit
compression factor than a JPEG frame microns, and uses a metal particle tape uncompressed digital) 10 D-1 (8-bit
would show. DV uses intraframe for better durability. DVCPRO also uncompressed digital) 9.9 Digital
compression: Each compressed frame adds a longitudinal analogue audio cue Betacam, Ampex DCT 9.7 Digital-S,
depends entirely on itself, and not on track and a control track to improve DVCPRO50 9.6 DV, DVCAM,
any data from preceding or following editing performance and user- DVCPRO 9 MII, Betacam SP 8.9 1
frames. However, it also uses adaptive friendliness in linear editing operations Type C 8.7 3/4 SP 6.5 3/4, Hi8,
interfield compression; if the SVHS 5 Video 8, Betamax 4 VHS 3
compressor detects little difference EIAJ Type 1, Fisher-Price Pixelvision 1
between the two interlaced fields of a What about Digital8? [I had previously placed D-2 and D-3
frame, it will compress them together, Sonys Digital8 uses DV compression uncompressed composite digital
freeing up some of the bit budget to atop the existing Video8/Hi8 formats just below BetaSP, lower than
allow for higher overall quality. In technological base. Digital8 records on any of the component formats. My
theory, this means that static areas of Video8 or Hi8 tapes, but these run at feeling was that while D-2 and D-3 are
images will be more accurately twice their normal speed and thus hold excellent first-generation formats for
represented than areas with a lot of half the time listed on the label. composite analogue playback and
motion; in practice, this can sometimes Digital8 will also play back existing NTSC broadcast, the compositing of
be observed as a slight degree of Video8 and Hi8 tapes, even over colour with luminance (which includes
blockiness in the immediate vicinity 1394/i.link, allowing such tapes to be a colour bandwidth limitation even
of moving objects, as discussed below. read into NLEs (at least, those for more severe than DV or BetaSP
DV video information is carried in a which the lack of timecode is not an employ) makes clean multigeneration
nominal 25 megabit per second (Mbps) issue -- batch capture utilities are and multi-layer image compositing
data stream. Once you add in audio, unlikely to work, since Video8/Hi8 problematic at best (even such simple
subcode (including timecode), Insert timecodes are not sent across the 1394 things as adding titles). However, I was
and Track Information (ITI), and error connection). Digital8 is a camcorder- severely rebuked by several people
correction, the total data stream come only format as of Spring 1999; no with extensive digital composite
to about 36 Mbps. VTRs are expected. It appears to be the experience, who all rated D-2 and D-3

between DV and DigiBeta. If youve diagonal as it passes from one DCT and VTRs, although the tape cassette
got a high-end all-digital post- block to the next; so minor that theyre itself is more robust and the transport is
production chain, the quality in these usually invisible. Watching such equipped with sapphire guide roller
formats holds up over multiple diagonals during slow pans is often the flanges and tape cleaner blades and a
generations extremely well, much only way to see the artefact. Motion new head drum design. One of the
better than any analogue format, be it blocking occurs when the two fields in Digital-S players will also play back
component or composite. While this is a frame (or portions of the two fields) analogue SVHS tapes, allowing its use
certainly true, if you dont have that all- are too different for the DVC codec to for editing existing libraries of SVHS
digital pathway, Im doubtful about compress them together. Bit budget tapes as well as newer Digital-S
how they would fare... so assume that must be expended on compressing footage. Head life (so far, in on-air
D-2 and D-3 fall somewhere in the them separately, and as a result some broadcast usage) is well in excess of
range between 1 and DigiBeta, and go fine detail is lost, showing up as a 4000 hours; equipment cost is very low
have a look for yourself! Ive also slight blockiness or coarseness of the (comparable to 25 Mbps DVCAM or
moved 1 / BetaSP / DV formats down image when compared to the same DVCPRO) and maintenance expenses
a bit numerically, though the relative scene with no motion. Motion blocking are well below those of the Betacam
rankings are preserved. Again, people is best observed in a lockdown shot of a decks that Digital-S is typically
who live in high-end digital suites all static scene through which objects are displacing. So far only JVC is
day suggested this, and I have to agree. moving: in the immediate vicinity of supporting this format, which has
My perceptions are largely predisposed the moving object (say, a car driving resulted in a less-than-headlong rush by
to see BetaSP quality as pretty darned through the scene), some loss of detail the video community to embrace it.
good; most of my work has been in is seen. This loss of detail travels with Panasonics DVCPRO50 uses the same
analogue component and Y/C editing the object, always bounded by DCT DVCPRO tapes and transports as its 25
with analogue Y/C monitoring on block boundaries. However, motion Mbps DVCPRO products (there is also
PVM-series monitors. But after you sit blur in the scene usually masks most of a 93-minute DVCPRO50 tape
in front of analogue component or this artefact, making this sort of specifically for the AJ-D950A VTR,
digital monitoring using BVM or blocking hard to see in most which Panasonic says should only be
Panasonic broadcast-grade monitors, circumstances. Finally, banding or used in DVCPRO50 mode. When using
your attitudes start to adjust upwards, striping of the image occurs when one standard DVCPRO tapes, the
and you start to discern differences head of the two on the head drum is maximum recording time is about 61
between the merely very good stuff and clogged or otherwise unable to recover minutes since the P123L cassette is
the truly excellent stuff a bit more data. The image will show 12 being run twice as fast). DVCPRO50
readily! horizontal bands (10 in non-PAL VTRs will also play back DVCPRO
countries), with every other band tapes. The 900-series DVCPRO50 kit is
showing a live picture and the real jack-of-all-trades stuff. The AJ-
What are the DV artefacts I keep alternate bands showing a freeze frame D910WA camcorder will record either
hearing about? of a previous image or of no image at DVCPRO or DVCPRO50, in either 4:3
DV artefacts come in three flavours: all (or, at least in the case of the JVC or true 16:9 modes. The AJ-D950A
mosquito noise, quilting, and motion GR-DV1u, a black-and-white VTR will record and play back either
blocking. Other picture defects chequerboard, with which the frame DVCPRO or DVCPRO50, and
encountered are dropouts and banding buffers appear to be initialized). Most additionally is switchable between
(a sign of tape damage or head often this is due to a head clog, and 525/59.94 (NTSC) and 625/50 (PAL)
clogging). The most noticeable spatial cleaning the heads using a standard formats. The only thing you give up is
artefacts are feathering or mosquito manufacturers head cleaning tape is all miniDV cassette playback; even with
noise around (typically) diagonal fine that is required. It can also be caused the adaptor the 950 wont read the tiny
detail. These are compression-induced by tape damage, or by a defective tape. tapes. Fortunately the AJ-D940
errors usually seen around sharp-edged If head cleaning and changing the tape DVCPRO50 player will play back
fine text, dense clusters of leaves, and used dont solve it, you may have a those miniDV tapes, and offers a wider
the like; they show up as pixel noise dead head or head preamp, and so a range of slo-mo speeds in the bargain.
within 8 pixels of the fine detail or edge service will be required. Unlike Digital-S, second-sourcing is
causing them. The best place to look available from Philips, Hitachi, and
for them is in fine text superimposed on Ikegami. The DVCPRO50 kit is also a
a non-black background - white on blue
What are Digital-S and lot more portable and lightweight than
seems to show it off best. The DVCPRO50? Digital-S. Panasonic also has
magnitude of these errors and their JVCs Digital-S (SMPTE designation DVCPRO-form-factor progressive-scan
location tends to be such that if you D-9) and Panasonics DVCPRO50 use cameras and VTRs that use the 50
monitor the tape using a composite two DV codecs in parallel. The tape Mb/sec data rate to encode a 480-line
video connection, the artefacts will be data rate is doubled to 50 Mbps (video) proscan image.
masked by dot-crawl and other and the compression work is split
composite artefacts. A spatial quilting between the two codecs. The result is a
artefact can also be seen on certain 4:2:2 image compressed about 3.3:1. It
Four codecs for HD?
diagonals - typically long, straight is visually lossless and utterly Both JVC and Panasonic showed
edges about 20 degrees off of the gorgeous. Think of Digital Betacam at working prototypes of 100 Mbps DV-
horizontal. These are minor a bargain price. JVCs Digital-S uses derived products at NAB 99 for
discontinuities in the rendering of the the 1/2 SVHS form factor for tapes handling HDTV. Both firms gang four

DV codecs together to get the 100 broadcaster selects. Panasonic is selling HDCAM format uses compression
Mbps data stream, while preserving the a switchable 720p/1080i HD-D5 VTR technology derived from DV and with
same equipment form factor and (not based on DV technology), the AJ- certain similarities, but it is not on the
operational methodologies used in the HD2700, which has already become the main branch of the DV family tree. Its
current 50 Mbps products. Panasonic studio standard VTR for the dawn of data rate of 135 Mbps yields beautiful
calls their stuff DVCPROHD100, while US DTV. JVCs NAB 98 and 99 images; its extremely rare to see a
JVC uses the D-9HD moniker, displays featured Digital-S variants of noticeable artefact in an HDCAM
reflecting the SMPTE standard number most popular ATSC DTV formats -- picture.
for their DV50 format. It should be 480i, 480p/30, 480p/60, 720p, and
noted that both of these companies are 1080i.. These two companies will be Adapted from an article by Adam J.
well-placed to serve the growing DTV pushing the edge of the DV envelope Wilt. Copyright (c) 1998, 1999
market whatever image format a for quite some time to come... Sonys
New Digital Test Card

By Paul Pitts card has to be the animated Fresnel since!
zone plate that orbits, (in an anti-
SW2 is a standard feature of both Snell clockwise direction) the centre Details of the frequency range
and Wilcox TPG20 and TPG21 test rectangle with a period of one second. contained within the zone plate, and
pattern generators. This example shows indeed all the salient features of test
a PAL variant, (albeit in mysterious This picture was derived from a 25 Hz card SW2, can be obtained from the
monochrome in this instance, but frame grab and shows how the excellent Snell and Wilcox web site
exactly as received off a Free To Air movement during this short time frame and for SW2 in particular at
digital satellite transponder recently) has blurred the Fresnel pattern. No http://www.snellwilcox.com/internet/li
where the 2T durations are of 200 ns sooner had I figured out how to do a 50 brary/testchart/body.html Here you will
and there is no black level set-up. Hz field grab than the off air card find six A4 colour pages of detailed
disappeared, not to be seen by me description of SW2 and its variants.
The most striking feature of this test

Core decodes and displays up to eight MPEG2 streams
The first video processor core out of
Quintessence Architectures (QuArc) is
the Videris-HD. In just 65,000 to
90,000 transistors and less than 2mm2,
it can decode and display up to eight
streams of MPEG2 video on the screen
at the same time, running at the full
clock speed of 154MHz.
The key to the QuArc approach is

based around the idea of atoms and
molecules of algorithms as objects
in silicon, all linked by a token passing
bus and a variable schedule data
processing it called data-driven
processing.
Each object is a self-contained

processing block, which communicates
to other objects or customer logic using
the token style unidirectional interfaces
with request, ready and data signals.
The objects can be reused either within
the core or in other designs, and avoids
the need for complex control logic.
In the data-driven processing

architecture, data between the
transmitter and receiver objects can be
sent at any time, resulting in maximum
performance while maintaining full
precision decode. The core is designed
to distribute worst-case peak processing
loads over more cycles, requiring fewer
gates and less power.
For each receiver, there is a

Request/ready handshake signal pair.
The receiver drives the request signal
and the transmitter drives the
corresponding ready signal and the Using this simple protocol means that (clock and reset) and at least one input
token bus. Whenever the receiver needs data tokens can flow on the interface at and one output interface.
or can accept a data token, it asserts the maximum speed (one token per cycle)
request. and the transmitter and receiver can Molecules are collections of
stall the data transfer in any cycle. interconnected atoms and other
When the transmitter has a token to molecules. A molecule can be as
deliver, it asserts the ready signal and The atom is the smallest object that simple as two atoms or as complex as
drives the token bus with the data uses the QuArc token interface, and all required to implement a complete
token. The token is valid only while the atoms have a clearly defined function. system.
ready signal is asserted and is The size varies depending on the
transferred from the transmitter to the functions complexity and the Reprinted from Electronics Times, 6th
receiver on the rising edge of the clock processing speed required, but each December 1999.
when request and ready are asserted. atom has at least two global signals www.dotelectronics.com
Visit the new CQ-TV web site at: -

www.cq-tv.com
ATVISS Amateur Television on the International Space Station
By Graham Shirville, G3VZV Although the best FSATV DX record When not under ground command the
currently stands at some 2000+miles on system could beacon every 2 mins for,
70cms and 500+ miles on 3cms, say, 10secs with camera video or
Intention generally ATV contacts are local in caption.
To provide hardware for inclusion in nature.
the permanent ARISS station to enable A limited number of ground based
ground based users access to and some There are number of national ATV Control stations could also upload
control of, video cameras on board the societies around the world (BATC in captions and operating instructions,
space station. the UK, AGAF in Germany, HBATV which could be transmitted as part of a
in Switzerland etc) and their total testcard sequence. (This follows
To so design the downlink membership is probably in excess of established ATV repeater practise)
methodology and modulation system to 5000 amateurs, perhaps similar to the
enable the pictures to be obtained with worldwide membership of the various The camera would, when the station is
relatively simple ground equipment. AMSAT groups? manned, be under the control of the
astronauts on board.
To provide a system which is designed
to be ideal for incorporating into Proposal A camera could have a low light level
demonstrations of amateur radio to One, or more, colour cameras would be capability to show night scenes of
capture the interest of incomers to our placed, externally, at suitable locations both the ISS and the ground, perhaps
world. on the space frame of the station. for light pollution measurements.
To provide a system which cannot The ISS being stabilised, these cameras The radio equipment would consist
sensibly be duplicated or replaced by would be essentially earth pointing of: Command receiver and decoder
the Internet! and therefore generally not vulnerable Simple AFSK 1200Bd packet system
to exposure to direct sunlight. would sufficient. The uplink could be
just below 438MHz if this would avoid
Background The cameras would be capable of the Pave Paws type radars?
Both the Mir space station and a pan/tilt and zoom operation.
number of SAREX Shuttle missions Command relay and telemetry
have demonstrated SSTV (slow scan) The camera(s) would be connected, by transmitter Would be to the same
Television. The SSTV transmissions an umbilical cable, back to a central standard as the receiver and work in
from Mir during late 98 and the first power supply, control and transmission simplex mode on the same frequency.
part of 99 have created a dramatic unit.
increase in the level of interest in the The video could be, perhaps initially,
mode and in the amateur space service. The ground station would command the could be colour SSTV as demonstrated
transmission on for a defined time by MIR .If a world-wide allocation on
The saying of a picture is worth a period (say 5 minutes) by sending a 2 metres was available this would be
thousand words has never been simple command (say a DTMF tone). ideal, but failing that, 10 metres
more true than the area of space Additional commands would operate (subject to space for the TX antenna)
exploration. The moon landings and the the pan/tilt/zoom system as required by would allow the use of simple, scanner
Mars Rover bear ample witness to this. the ground operator. type, receivers.
A large number of Amateur Radio Alternatively a packet system could be There is, currently, no adopted standard
Satellites have already demonstrated devised for control which would also for digital FSATV. A digital system
taking still pictures of the earth from relay the control sequences received would be the most appropriate in terms
space and these use devices which can and currently active back to the ground. of definition/power budget/spectrum
also be used for moving pictures. This would enable the ground station to usage. Until such a system is
understand what was happening with practicable the best system would be
Fast Scan Amateur Television (FSTV) the system and other ground stations FMTV as currently used by TV
is activity that started in the late 1940s could also see who was currently amateurs for most terrestrial operation
in Europe and the USA and generally commanding the camera. above 1GHz. The transmitted
uses standard broadcast systems to bandwidth would be, perhaps, some
maintain compatibility. Current there is The latter system would also enable the 10MHz if analogue or 4/5MHz if
ATV activity some 20 or 30 countries systems health to be monitored by digital. The band of choice for this
around the world. This activity centres telemetry carried on the same carrier. would be 13cms as it is already in
on the 70cms/23cms/13cms and 3cms common use by ATV operators in
bands both with simplex and repeater Maybe the APRS system would be many countries. Antenna
operation. There are, perhaps, some suitable/could be extended to provide beamwidth/gain would be an issue.
300 ATV repeaters around the world. this functionality.

Selection of 525/625 line standards for seeing what is happening on and network of ground stations to provide a
analogue signals could be by ground around the ISS and on the earth below. reasonable level of service.
control or by onboard GPS positioning
data. They would be further interested in the There is nothing described above that is
possibility of commanding a part of beyond current technology and it
the ISS themselves directly. should therefore be possible for such a
Summary system to be created quickly and,
This concept is based upon the premise Although the pictures could be relayed relatively, cheaply.
that existing and potential amateurs via the internet, the relatively low
will be thrilled by the possibility of height of the ISS would require a large
Digital television in the USA

In a surprise move, the Pentagon has petition with the FCC demanding that it According to the Sinclair petition, use
come out against the US digital IV should consider allowing its members of the COFDM transmission system
(DTV) standards vestigial sideband 8- to use COFDM. will provide many advantages to
VSB modulation technology. broadcasters as well as to the viewing
The Sinclair petition makes two public. Not only would COFDM permit
Along with broadcast owners requests. It asks the FCC to modify its more reliable reception with simple
controlling 240 TV stations across the DIV rules to give broadcasters the consumer-grade antennas but, crucially,
country, the Pentagon is asking the choice to transmit their digital signals it would enhance mobile reception of
Federal Communications Commission using either COFDM or 8-VSB. Last DIV while giving broadcasters
(FCC) to reconsider allowing year, Sinclair compared the reception flexibility in formatting their DIV
broadcasters to use the alternative of COFDM and 8-VSB signals at 40 programming.
European transmission system sites in the Baltimore area. According
COFDM. to its findings, it was very hard to COFDM technology permits
receive a useable DIV signal using 8- broadcasters to vary their data rates
Digital high-definition IV (HDTV) has VSB and very hard not to receive a from 4 to 24Mbit in contrast to the 8-
often been described as the holy grail useable DTV signal using COFDM. VSB standard, which limits a
of broadcasting, and the FCC has broadcaster to one fixed data rate of
scheduled a 10-year transition for the Two of the big 8-VSB DTV players, 19.34Mbit. COFDMs variable data
USS transition to digital HDTV. the Consumer Electronics rate would enable broadcasters to
Manufacturers Association (CEMA) transmit multiple HDTV programming
US terrestrial broadcasters have opted and the Advanced Television Systems streams. In contrast, 8-VSB
for ATSC, which uses a single carrier Committee (ATSC), acknowledge that broadcasters will be forever limited by
transmission system, 8VSB, designed the Sinclair tests exposed serious its frozen data rate.
to push the signal out as far and as problems with the digital equipment
strongly as possible. But ATSC is currently on the market, but insist that Because the COFDM system can
designed for rooftop reception and 8- future products will be much provide HDTV using the same 6MHz
VSB cannot support mobile reception. improved. These opponents feel that channels as 8-VSB, the greater capacity
too much time and money has already for improvement of COFDM
This is a source of some concern to the been invested in 8-VSB to now technology will likely permit high-
Pentagon because, in a case of disaster, abruptly change horses. quality reception at even higher rates in
whether natural or man-made, the future.
government broadcasts will need to be Both companies feel that the ATSC
received by people on the move. DIV standard was carefully designed to Furthermore, the existing user base of
According to the Department of meet the requirements of the DIV approximately 4000 8-VSB receivers
Defence video working group: broadcast market in the US, and does should not prevent the FCC from
so brilliantly. An executive of ATSC permitting the use of COFDM, says
We are concerned about our national recently commented that the solution Sinclair. Given the overall size of the
capability to employ digital IV to this problem is [only] months away. US TV market, the number of
broadcast systems to communicate with consumers who have purchased a DIV
the public during civil and defence But Sinclair and a significant number set represents just four thousandths of
emergencies. of broadcasters remain unpersuaded. 1% of all US IV households.
Broadcast owners controlling 240
The Sinclair Broadcasting Group, commercial stations from across the Sinclair claims that broadcasters and
representing broadcasters, has become country support Sinclairs call for a manufacturers would face only minor
so concerned that consumers may not new DIV standard. Other broadcasters costs if the FCC allows the use of
be able to receive DIV signals with have also threatened to lodge petitions COFDM, and that costs would be
current receivers that it has filed a with the FCC. incurred voluntarily since stations can

choose to use either 8-VSB or COFDM peddling on the FCCs part could see As one field is being scanned, the
modulation ATSC triumphant. If that happens, the previous fields light intensity fades as
US runs great fiscal and industrial the phosphors light level decays in the
ATSC and CEMA argue that risks. At the very least, the FCC may milliseconds between refreshes. As the
broadcasters have already invested have to reconsider its position on the light level of the older field fades,
more than $300mn in transmission analogue closure date. image detail also fades; the result is a
equipment that uses 8-VSB, and that loss of resolution.
revision of the DIV modulation
standard now would only add cost and Progressing to digital Progressive scanning provides greater
delay to the DIV rollout. But the piece Within the next decade, TV broadcasts detail and eliminates the line structure
of broadcast technology that would in the US are scheduled to convert from appearance of video. And these
have to be replaced to reconfigure a analogue interlaced NTSC to advantages are achievable with existing
transmitter from 8-VSB to COFDM is a progressive scanning digital. This could CRT display technology.
fraction of the total cost. give consumers an additional reason to
buy a digital TV as it provides a major All that is required is a deflection yoke
At present, HDIV take-up in the US has improvement in picture quality. capable of 31.5kHz horizontal sweep
been slow. Advocates of COFDM and the electronics to up-convert from
technology claim that reliable reception Analogue NTSC uses interlaced interlace to progressive. The image
through simple antennas and the use of scanning to refresh the screen in two quality depends on the performance of
mobile DIV programming streams will top-to-bottom passes, in effect nudging the up conversion processing.
be more likely to encourage DIV take- the CRTs phosphor to act as a
up. memory, storing one field while the Reprinted from Electronics Times 24th
next one is being scanned. January 2000
The most likely outcome is that the
FCC will allow broadcasters to choose But interlacing limits image quality, www.dotelectronics.com
between AISC and COFDM, but it is introduces artefacts and constrains
possible that an act of political back visible detail.
Digital Amateur TV tests started in Germany

By Klaus, DL4KCK (AGAF of the TX and RX modules and the PC constructed in Wuppertal for field tests
e.V.) interface card for software control. afterwards. The whole effort is
powered by financial support of DARC
On 16th of December 1999 about 20 Each of the four districts has got the headquarter, the four districts, AGAF
hams from 4 DARC districts gathered following tested prototypes in working e.V. and by private donations.
at the Telecommunications Institut of order: 1) one TX with relay switch, 2)
"Bergische University" in Wuppertal in one RX, 3) one PC with monitor, 4) The upcoming test transmissions on
order to receive a pilot series of Digital one PC interface card, 5) appropriate 434 MHz in GMSK will carry MPEG-1
ATV equipment. software. video from the PC hard disk, but in a
lab of the Wuppertal University a little
After an introduction by Prof. Uwe All devices are in cases without power hardware MPEG-2 coder processed live
Kraus, DJ8DW his fellow workers supply (12 Volt DC). A 10 W PA is camera pictures - the next generation of
DL1EIN and DJ8VR explained details built into the TX case, two more RX DATV (or digital ham television) in
devices for each district will be Germany.
UNREPEATABLE CLEARANCE SALE

Stocks of the following printed circuit boards will be available at a special low price of 50 pence per board at
the Club Rally on May 7th. The same price, plus postage, applies to any mail orders received quoting this
notice up to that date.
Stock numbers 13, 20, 21, 26, 46, 55, 56, 57, 60, 61, 62.
(For details see the Member's Services page in this issue, or the listing on the Club website).
Stocks are very limited on some items, so strictly this is on a 'first come, first served' basis.
If any stock remains of these items after 7th May, it will be disposed of. If you foresee a need for any of
these items, BUY NOW, or never again!

Members Services
All prices in UK pounds () Each P&P Qty Total
Camera Tubes, Scan Coils, Bases & Lens Mounts
3 One inch Vidicon base ..................................................................1.20 ............ 0.30 .......... ..........
4 2/3 inch Vidicon base ...................................................................0.80 ............ 0.30 .......... ..........
6 Camera tube (see previous note).....................................................* ................. 1.20 .......... ..........
Video and I2C Circuit Boards/Components

7 Sync pulse generator PCB ..........................................................12.00 ............ 0.43 .......... ..........
12 Teletext pattern PCB**.................................................................3.50 ............ 0.43 .......... ..........
13 Greyscale/Colour bar generator PCB............................................3.50 ............ 0.43 .......... ..........
19 Video filter PCB ...........................................................................1.20 ............ 0.30 .......... ..........
20 Video processing amplifier** .......................................................4.70 ............ 0.43 .......... ..........
21 Vision switcher matrix**..............................................................4.70 ............ 0.43 .......... ..........
26 Video level indicator PCB ............................................................5.90 ............ 0.43 .......... ..........
40 I2C CPU PCB..............................................................................10.00 ............ 0.43 .......... ..........
41 I2C VDU PCB.............................................................................10.00 ............ 0.43 .......... ..........
42 13.875 MHz crystal ......................................................................4.70 ............ 0.30 .......... ..........
70 6.0 MHz Teletext crystal ..............................................................1.75 ............ 0.30 .......... ..........
43 SAA5231 genlock IC....................................................................8.80 ............ 0.30 .......... ..........
44 SAA5243PE Teletext IC.............................................................14.70 ............ 0.30 .......... ..........
45 PCF8583 Clock IC........................................................................7.00 ............ 0.30 .......... ..........
39 LM1881N Sync separator IC........................................................3.50 ............ 0.30 .......... ..........
81 I2C 27256 EPROM .......................................................................9.70 ............ 0.30 .......... ..........
38 PCF8574P Input expander IC .......................................................4.70 ............ 0.30 .......... ..........
10 I2C Relay PCB ..............................................................................6.50 ............ 0.43 .......... ..........
9 PCF8574A Input expander IC ......................................................4.70 ............ 0.43 ......... ..........
RX, TX and SSTV PCBs and General Components

47 70cm up converter PCB..............................................................13.50 ............ 0.43 .......... ..........
50 108.875 MHz crystal ....................................................................8.20 ............ 0.30 .......... ..........
86 24cm solid-state amplifier PCB ..................................................10.50 ............ 0.43 .......... ..........
55. Gunn diode modulator PCB..........................................................3.00 ............ 0.43 .......... ..........
56 10GHz head unit PCB set** .........................................................3.00 ............ 0.43 .......... ..........
57 Tuneable IF PCB** ......................................................................3.00 ............ 0.43 .......... ..........
88. XR215 phase locked loop IC ........................................................5.00 ............ 0.30 .......... ..........
60 G4ENA colour etc. SSTV mod PCB set.......................................5.90 ............ 0.43 .......... ..........
61. G4ENA SSTV transmit mod PCB................................................7.00 ............ 0.43 .......... ..........
62 G4ENA auxiliary PCB .................................................................2.35 ............ 0.30 .......... ..........
37 GX414 Video switch IC ...............................................................8.80 ............ 0.30 .......... ..........
68 4.433618MHz crystal ...................................................................3.25 ............ 0.30 .......... ..........
69. 5.0MHz crystal .............................................................................3.25 ............ 0.30 .......... ..........
46 4 Rail power supply PCB..............................................................3.50 ............ 0.43 .......... ..........
Stationery & Station Accessories
73. BATC blue diamond clutchpin badge...........................................1.75 ............ 0.30 .......... ..........
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75 BATC equipment label (6) ...........................................................0.25 ............ 0.30 .......... ..........
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78 BATC test card .............................................................................0.50 ............ 0.43 .......... ..........
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Circuit Details can be found as follows:

Revised ATV Handbook (vol. 2): PCBs 21, 22. An Introduction to ATV: PCBs 10, 25, 36, 40, 41, 47, 85, 86. TV for
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An introduction to PIC programming. Part 2
By Brian Kelly
In the first part of this series we got to
know the buzzwords and a little about
the insides of PIC devices. This time
we will look at how a program actually
runs and how to set about writing one.
If all goes well, you should be able to
write and run a very simple program by
the end of this issues article.
Probably the most difficult concept for

the complete beginner to grasp is how
dumb a microprocessor is. Despite the
hype, Internet and videos of Intel
technicians in bunny suits, at the end of
the day a micro can do absolutely
nothing without being given step-by-
step instructions. This is equally true
for the simplest processor through to
the fastest Pentium. Without
instructions the chip will sit forever
doing nothing even remotely useful. It explicitly told the starting point and setting up to perform before the
is the job of the programmer to harness every single step along the way. program proper starts. Some programs
the chips capabilities and make it will have no end point - they will
perform a meaningful job. In the The biggest mistake the simply repeat a set of actions forever
Middle Ages, when I first started novice programmer makes and where the end would be on
writing programs, every instruction had is to sit at a keyboard and a flow chart there would be a
to be learned, not only for what it did, try writing a program. loop back to an earlier step.
but also by its numeric value. I have to Heres my free advice: Each stage of a flow chart may
confess that I can still read Z80 code in dont! Always start a represent a complete task or
hexadecimal but my psychiatrist tells program by outlining your may only detail a small
me Ill get over it. Thankfully, these objective and then instruction but the more you
days we have sophisticated tools called investigating the best way break the objective into small
assemblers that make life much easier. of reaching it. The better a stages, the nearer to a program
program is planned, the it will look. Our traveller made
So what is a program? Well, its a set easier it will be to write decisions based on observing
of instructions to complete a task. Lets and debug. Always start their surroundings; in PIC
draw a parallel with a task that we out with a flow chart programming, all decisions are
might encounter in everyday life. drawn on paper in pencil based on comparing numbers.
Suppose you had to tell someone who and be prepared to erase it The principle is the same,
didnt know your locale how to reach and re-draw it many times when some condition is met, a
the next town. The objective is simple, over. There is an official choice on which way to go is
just reach there but along the way there way of drawing flow charts made.
will be landmarks, course changes and but in reality there is no
decisions to be made. Your instructions need to produce a work of Believe it or not, we have
might say turn right at the crossroads art; a list of actions with already covered most of the
and pass through the traffic lights; arrows showing the desired fundamental building blocks of
plain enough if you know where the program flow will suffice. a program, the initialisation,
junction is and the lights are green. In Fig. 2.1 shows an example flow, decisions and
reality your traveller would have to of a flow chart for the termination. The only part
look at every junction until the traveller to follow: missing is the interaction with
crossroads are found then decide if it is the outside world. The
safe to navigate to the right and after Note that the chart has start designers of the PIC family
finding the lights, they have to decide if and end points as well as a have made this aspect of
they say stop or go and act accordingly. course between them. This programming very simple.
You and I would use common sense to is very important in They treat the pins of the chip
follow the directions and experience to programming, especially Fig 2.1 in exactly the same way as a
make the decisions. PICs have neither the start point, as normally register, in fact they are
of these attributes so they need to be there will be a degree of connected directly to one of

the registers. If you read the value in destination. If moving the source back That wasnt too difficult. If you break
the register, you are actually seeing the into itself sounds a bit daft, there is a the binary numbers down into fields
voltage levels on the pins and if you put good reason why it can be useful; this using the instruction table, you will see
data into the register, its bit pattern is instruction also sets Z bit in the status how the bit groups are composed. Note
reproduced as a voltage on the pins. By register if the value being moved is how the COMF (compliment bits in a
voltage here I mean logic level - a logic zero so it can be used to update the Z file) neatly performs two tasks; it not
zero means a voltage close to ground bit without having any other effects. only turns the bits in register 5 upside
and a logic one means a voltage close down, it also leaves the result in the W
to the supply line voltage. The only Another example instruction is register ready for the next instruction to
complication with treating the pins as a ADDWF , this time the mnemonic is use it. MOVWF (move W to a file) put
register is that a pin cant be an input to short for add W to file and it is the contents of W into register 6, where
the chip at the same time as being an represented by the bit pattern the bits magically appear as voltages on
output from it. There is, of course, a 000111dfffffff. Like the previous the RB pins.
way to switch the pin between input example, the fixed bits on the left
and output mode under program identify the instruction type, d sets What is missing from our two-
control; well see how it is done later. the destination as before and the f instruction program is something to tell
bits hold the number of the file register us where these instructions are to be
Its time to start writing our first to which W is added. stored inside the chip. For that we need
program. Bear with me for now, Im to add the address where it is to be
going to show you the hard way first! The last example is a condition testing placed in the program memory area.
This is not the way to write efficient one, the BTFSS instruction or bit All processors have an address that
programs quickly but, hopefully, it will test in a file and skip if set. Believe they fetch their first instruction, called
show you what is really happening me, the mnemonic is easier to type than the reset vector, from and because
when we use an assembler later on. For that mouthful. Coded as 0111bbbfffffff immediately after a reset the chip will
now we will code the program by flow it follows the same pattern as before, be in a confused state, the reset vector
charting then writing the processor 0111 tells it what to do but this time has to be in a fixed location so it can be
instructions as arrangements of binary there are three bits bbb to identify the found. In the 16C84 the address is
bits. Before deciding on which position of the bit (from 0 to 7) within 0000, right at the first location in
instructions to use well quickly look at register fffffff that is to be checked. memory. Beware though, some PIC
how each instruction is constructed. All If the bit is set to a one, the next devices use an address at the end of
instructions are made up of bit fields instruction is jumped over; if the bit is a memory and other types of
laid side by side. The 16C84 uses zero it is executed. microprocessor use even more obscure
instructions that are 14 bits wide, made places to hide it. If we wanted our little
up from a field describing the type of All PIC instructions are made up from program to run as soon as the chip was
instruction, a field naming the source of these bit fields in the same way. If you reset, we would store the first
data and a field defining where the look at the table of instructions, you instruction at the reset vector and the
result of the instruction is to be stored. will see how similar they are and how second immediately after it at address
You might like to think of them as the type of operation they perform 0001. In practice, our program
where to get it from, what to do groups them into functional families. wouldnt work properly because the
with it and where to put it instructions to make RA pins work as
afterwards. Now to that program we were about to inputs and RB pins work as outputs are
write. As they say on TV, dont try missing; well come to the initialisation
Using the MOVF instruction as an this at home, the program wont work procedures shortly.
example, the name is short for move without some extra instructions, and
file contents which concisely states its would be difficult to transfer into a real
purpose. It takes the value stored in a Introducing the Assembler
chip anyway, but at least you can see
file register and duplicates it how it is put together. All we will do is As you have no doubt gathered from
somewhere else. read the bits on the chips RA (port A) my comments earlier, programming in
pins, turn zeroes into ones and vice binary is about as easy as herding cats.
The 14 bits of the instruction are versa and then output the bits on the No serious programming person would
001000dfffffff, the zeroes and ones are RB (port B) pins. RA pins are write Microcontroller code without
fixed, they tell the processor that this is electrically connected to register 5 and using an assembler and that includes
the move instruction, the d tells it RB to register 6. you and me. Assemblers not only allow
the destination and the f bits make up you to use meaningful words in your
the binary number of the file register 00100100000101 COMF with d = 0 program, but they take care of nearly
which is to have its contents copied. and f bits set to 05 inverts RA pin all the address generating and, as a
There are seven f bits which gives a levels, leaving result in W. bonus, they tell you if they think
binary number range of zero to 3F (63 something is wrong. As the world
in decimal) for the source register record holder for the most error
00000010000110 MOVWF moves
number but only one d bit to select messages, I cannot emphasise how
contents of W to register 06, which are
one of two possible destinations. Some much time fixing a bug before it
the RB pins.
instructions, like this one, will only reaches the silicon stage saves. An
allow you to use the W register (d = 0) assembler will normally let you know if
or the source register (d = 1) as the you have a syntactical error (a line that

Instruction name What the instruction does Instruction bits Status bits
MSB LSB
ADDLW k Add value k to contents of W 11 111x kkkk kkkk
ADDWF f,d Add contents of W and f 00 0111 dfff ffff C,DC,Z
ANDLW k Logic AND contents of W and k 11 1001 kkkk kkkk Z
ANDWF f,d Logic AND contents of W and f 00 0101 dfff ffff Z
BCF f,b Clear(0) bit b in f 01 00bb bfff ffff
BSF f,b Set (1) bit b in f 01 01bb bfff ffff
BTFSC f,b Skip next if bit b in f is 0 01 10bb bfff ffff
BTFSS f,b Skip next if bit b in f is 1 01 11bb bfff ffff
CALL k Call subroutine at address k 10 0kkk kkkk kkkk
CLRF f Zero all bits in f 00 0001 1fff ffff Z
CLRW Zero all bits in W 00 0001 0xxx xxxx Z
CLRWDT Reset the watchdog timer 00 0000 0110 0100 TO,PD
COMF f,d Compliment all bits in f 00 1001 dfff ffff Z
DECF f,d Decrement the value in f 00 0011 dfff ffff Z
DECFSZ f,d Decrement f and skip if zero 00 1011 dfff ffff
GOTO k Jump to address k 10 1kkk kkkk kkkk
INCF f,d Increment the value in f 00 1010 dfff ffff Z
INCFSZ f,d Increment f and skip if zero 00 1111 dfff ffff
IORLW k Logic OR contents of W with k 11 1000 kkkk kkkk Z
IORWF f,d Logic OR contents of W and f 00 0100 dfff ffff Z
MOVF f,d Move (copy) contents of f 00 1000 dfff ffff Z
MOVLW k Move (copy) value k into W 11 00xx kkkk kkkk
MOVWF f Move (copy) contents of W to f 00 0000 1fff ffff
NOP No Operation (does nothing) 00 0000 0xx0 0000
RETFIE Return from interrupt routine 00 0000 0000 1001
RETLW k Put value k in W and return 11 01xx kkkk kkkk
RETURN Return without changing W 00 0000 0000 1000
RLF f,d Rotate bits left in f via C 00 1101 dfff ffff C
RRF f,d Rotate bits right in f via C 00 1100 dfff ffff C
SLEEP Switch into standby mode 00 0000 0110 0011 TO,PD
SUBLW k Subtract W from value k 11 110x kkkk kkkk C,DC,Z
SUBWF f,d Subtract W from contents of f 00 0010 dfff ffff C,DC,Z
SWAPF f,d Swap bits 7-4 with 3-0 in f 00 1110 dfff ffff
XORLW k Logic XOR contents of W with k 11 1010 kkkk kkkk Z
XORWF f,d Logic XOR contents of W with f 00 0110 dfff ffff Z
Fig. 2.2 and notes:
1. b in the instruction column refers to the number of a single bit (0-7) in register f, in the bits column it holds the
binary representation of the same bit number.
2. d refers to the destination, that is, where the result of the instruction is to be place. If d =0 the result is put in the W
register, if d=1 it is put back in register f. f in the instruction column refers to the number of one of the PICs
registers. The same number is represented in the instruction bits column as seven binary bits.
3. k is an absolute value, that means it is treated as a numerical value rather than as the number of another register.
4. x in the instruction bits means the bit can be either a one or zero, it makes no difference to the outcome of the
instruction. It is considered good practice to set x bits to zero so the instruction always produces the same bit pattern.
5. The Status bits refer to the individual bits in the Status register, these reflect the current state of the PIC while a program
is running and can be checked at any time with the BTFSC and BTFSS instructions:
C the Carry bit, is set when a mathematical carry is generated by making the number in a register too big to hold. It
is also used as a link between the first and last bits when a rotate instruction is used.
DC Digit carry, is like the C bit but works if a carry between bits 3 and 4 is generated. This is useful
when doing math with 4-bit numbers such as BCD.
PD Power down is used to find out the reason for the PIC starting up, it is zero after waking up from
standby mode and one after power-up or a watchdog timing out reset.
TO Time out, is zero after a watchdog timeout and set to one at power-up or when the watchdog is reset.
Z Zero is set when the result of an instruction causes all the register bits to be zeroes.
makes no sense), are attempting to Im going to base this section on Microchip provides both versions on
misuse a register or have branched the Microchips own MPASM assembler. their web site www.microchip.com and
program to somewhere east of Cairo. It comes in two flavours, DOS and on their data CD. The DOS
Ive done all these and still have scars Windows - both do the same job but the implementation can either be started by
to prove it. DOS version is, in my opinion, easier typing MPASM then hitting the
to use and much faster to run. return key, in which case it requests

intended to configure the assembler
rather than be part of the PICs program.
It also takes note of the start address,
which you specified, and counts the
instructions, so it can track where in
memory the instruction would be
placed. When it comes across a label
it notes its name and the address at
which it was found. A label is a place
marker you put in the program, usually
to provide a target for instructions that
cause the program to branch to a new
memory address. For example the
instruction GOTO my_label would
cause the program to jump to wherever
my_label happened to be and carry
on from there. On the second pass, the
assembler actually translates the
mnemonics into instructions,
incorporating any register names, labels
addresses or fixed numbers into the
machine instructions bits. Without
performing two passes, any references
to labels further down the program
couldnt be processed, as the assembler
wouldnt have encountered them to
know where they were.
A typical source code section

Broken down into its component parts,
Fig 2.3 this code fragment has a section at the
top which associates a name with a
details on a menu like screen, or by a string of hexadecimal numbers. Dont value, so that using Port_a in the
typing MPASM <source file> where worry if the HEX file looks odd, the instruction will actually cause the value
the source file is your hard written programming unit should know how to 05 to be used which makes code much
code. The latter method is generally handle it. The assembler can also more readable than using the number. It
easier, especially if you put the produce other files, most of which are has an org or origin directive,
assembler settings at the start of your unimportant at this stage but you might which tells the assembler where the
file. The source file is assumed to have get one ending in . ERR if something code is to be located when it is stored
a name ending in .ASM unless you is wrong. It is a list of errors although in the PIC. It also has a label
tell it otherwise and it produces files of they are also made obvious in the Initialise which in this case is
the same name but ending in .LST listing file. assigned the value 100 (it is
and .HEX. The LST is a text listing immediately after the org) so the goto
of your source code with the addresses, A quick word on how assemblers work instruction knows where to jump.
machine codes and comments all is in order. Most, including MPASM, Labels must always start right at the
placed side-by-side - it is invaluable are two-pass assemblers. That means beginning of a line, thats how the
when tracking down obscure bugs. The they read all the source code twice assembler distinguishes them from
HEX file is the binary code in a format before producing the output files. On instructions and other equ (equals or
ready to feed into most programmer the first pass, all the assembler equates-to) words. Although it is
units; it contains lines of text made directives are read. They are possible to use labels having the same
from a header with the address in it and instructions in the source code that are name as instructions or directives, I
Port_a equ H'05'

W equ 0
Same equ 1
org H'100' ;set start address to 100 (hex)

Initialise movf Port_a,W ;copy contents of port a into working register
btfss Port_a,2 ;skip the next instruction if bit 2 = 0
goto initialise ;if it wasn't, back to the initialise label
addlw H'20' ;otherwise add 20 (hex) to it.
A typical source code section

strongly advise against it, as it is likely achieves. Dont worry too much at this respectively. These can be loaded just
to cause confusion if you re-visit the stage if it doesnt make sense, Ill talk as easily using the MOVWF instruction
program later and forget you did it! you through each line of assembler with the appropriate register as the
source code in our trial program in the destination.
The code fragment also has comments, next article. You might find it
anything following a semi-colon (;) up interesting to look at code listings in If you didnt buy the components I
to the end of the line is treated as a previous copies of CQ-TV, so that you mentioned in part one, do so now. If
comment and is solely there as a can see how the instructions and other you construct the circuit shown in fig
reminder to the programmer; the assembler instructions fit together in a 2.3, by the end of the next article you
assembler completely ignores it. A well working program. I should warn you should be able to see your name or call
commented program is easy to about two instructions you might sign in lights! The construction isnt
maintain and debug so you are advised encounter which are not in figure 2.2, particularly critical of layout, as long as
to use them liberally, the adage if it TRIS and OPTION which are the decoupling capacitor between
was difficult to write, it should be present in some earlier PIC devices and ground and supply is as close as
difficult to understand doesnt teach a left in the 16C84 for compatibility. possible to the chip. The LEDs should
good lesson. Microchip does not recommend their be lined up vertically with the one
use and may remove them in new connected to RB7 at the top and others
Figure 2.2 shows all the instructions a designs. They allowed the value in W in sequence down to RB0 at the
16C84 can execute and gives a brief to be placed directly into the port TRIS bottom. Keep the LEDs close together,
explanation of what each of them registers and the option register touching if possible.
Members only!
As mentioned in the previous issue site. Access to these pages requires a Username: amember
(CQ-TV 188, page 42) we have set-up username and password. This quarters
a members only section on our web codes are as follows: - Password: mayday
Call sign generator

By Chris Barker G1EZJ
I have been experimenting with PIC
chips - the PIC12C509 to be exact - and
have managed to get the PIC to
produce a Morse message about every
fifteen minutes. My own message on
my 24cm transmitter reads as follows
"G1EZJ 24cm ATV station IO82VX".
Obviously each chip has to have a
dedicated program with the stations
own information.
I also have two running on my fixed

10GHz links to G0NMY and G8SAR,
and am fitting one in my FI726R. Any
other suggestions would be welcomed.
The PIC runs off 5 volts and has 8 pins There is a further use for which this If anyone is interested in my Morse ID
on it. Pins 1 and 4 are tied to 5V; pin 2 could be used. One of these could be chip then they can contact me on 01782
is the Morse output; pin 3 toggles with fitted into the MIC circuit of your 869247, email G1EZJ@cwcom.net At
the Morse to power an LED as a front VHF/HF gear and set to run at a very the moment, the cost of programming
panel indication; pin 5 is not used; pins low level in the background. Now if and supplying the chip looks to be
6, 7 and 8 are tied to 0V. That is all (God forbid) your rig is stolen, the next about 10, including postage and
there is to it, and it could even be fitted time the thief or the receiver of your rig connection details.
into a microphone (providing a 5 volt tries to use it, it would give your call
supply is available). sign and address out in Morse as stored
on the PIC chip!

Further uses of Plug Top Power Supplies
By M. H. Cox
In his Circuit Notebook No 69, John
Lawrence talks about extending the use
of these supplies. I would like to take
the concept further still, but then I seem
to be making a habit of this!
As a hobby, I am what might

laughingly be called the technical
supervisor of the IBC Message
Service. I am also Vice President of
IBC, but that is nothing to do with this
piece. It has been the custom at IBC to
provide a service of information,
messages for lost delegates, and
promotion for various activities on a
series of monitors around the show
ground. IBC99 had about 90 in all.
These are mostly PAL receivers fed

from the RAI cable distribution
network, but with some 8ft x 6ft
projection displays, usually fed SDI.
The heart of the service is a jury-rigged Figure 2 - Component DA

control room in a corner of the main
Technical Facilities area. John Holton (LCD home brewed devices, some of Where do the power supplies come in,
(former Chairman/MD of Aston them), all the cabling and power you ask? Unfortunately the Aston
Electronic Developments) and I arrive distribution, and an edit facility using a machines only provide one YPbPr
a few days before the show and build specially built 8 x 4 analogue output, and the system needed at least 2
up the facility. Last year we borrowed 4 component routing (YPbPr) switcher. separate feeds. In previous years, I had
Aston Ethos and Motif character This is to enable material to be dumped taken out a rack of Avitel DAs, but
generators. I provide two specially onto the 2 or 3 DPS computer edit these were a bit ancient, and took up a
adapted COX switchers for output systems that are used for compilation of lot of space and weight. Thoughts
control, as well as a few little monitors promotions, stings etc. turned to building some 3 output YPbPr
DAs in as small a box as possible.
Safety and size considerations

suggested low voltage power, but
although the plug top supplies are
excellent, they are only single voltage,
and my thoughts were towards split rail
supplies. (EMI circuit influence rather
than Marconi!). Newport makes a very
useful series of dc-dc converters
starting at around 6 for the 1-watt
version. Also available are 3 and 4
amplifier 14-pin DIL op-amps
with100MHz bandwidth. One of these
(AD813, Analogue Devices) is used
together with a Newport NMH1209S
dc converter from 12 volts to +/- 9
volts. The DA is fixed unity gain into 3
75-ohm loads, and works well. 4 of
these were built with all components
including BNCs (triple BNC on a strip,
available from Westside Supplies Ltd,
01423 860626) on a single PCB.
Figure 1 - Circuit Diagram of Component DA

Figure 3 - Component DA pcb
DC was input on 2 x 2.1mm connectors had power to spare for other uses. work equally well, although are not
to provide a loop through facility. man enough for the LCD monitors as
My home brewed LCD monitors use these usually need around 700mA.
Argos (and others) sells a Uniross 1.5 - the same connector, and hence can run Most new units that I have built
12 volt regulated 1A block for 9.99, on the same supplies. Plug top psus, recently use this power arrangement,
and one of these drove the 4 DAs and particularly the regulated version, will even an audio mixer. The other
advantage is that I have a stock of Sony
Figure 5 - Exploded view of unit

Figure 4 - Modified unit on top of original uni
NP1 (12v, 1.5Ahr) batteries, and with which should be adequate, and a output of the LCD monitors that are used for
the use of a cunning contact clip current of 70mA which again is editing.
(Hawk-Wood), these can drive any adequate to drive 3 outputs into 75
piece of equipment using the 2.1mm ohms. It is also relatively cheap at Fig. 4 shows modified switcher
connector. As a practical point, a about 4.50 (Farnell). The pin out is as standing on unmodified unit, Fig. 5
Schottky diode in series with the dc a TL074. shows an exploded view of the
input is well worth fitting in case of modified unit, and Fig. 6 shows the
polarity reversal, and expensive Power comes once again from a circuit diagram.
consequences. A further benefit of Newport 12 volt to +/-5 volt dc-dc
using dc-dc converters is that other 12- converter and a pair of 2.1mm sockets Farnell of Leeds is a good source for
volt units can be run from the psu to run off the ubiquitous plug top the AD813 and CLC5644 ICs
without worrying about ground currents supply. mentioned, and stock a good range of
or hum loops. Fig. 1 shows the circuit Newport dc-dc converters.
diagram of the Component DA while This device uses so little current that
Fig. 2 and Fig. 3 show the outside and power is looped through on way to one
inside (pcb) of the unit.
Another application is in making a very

cheap switcher with multiple outputs
for use in VT editing. I have a Sony
DHR1000, a SONY GR-D300 (both
DV machines), a DPS Perception
system built into a WinNT computer,
and the house S-VHS machine. Most of
these have Record inputs that will take
Y/C and stereo audio. Tandy make an
excellent 4 x 1 switcher using good old
mechanical switches and switch 5
layers - Y/C, composite and stereo
audio, for the princely sum of 12.99.
However there is only one output.

Thoughts turned to the possibility of
building a simple DA into the box, and
adding the extra output sockets
necessary. National/Comlinear make a
4-section current mode op-amp which Figure 6 - Circuit Diagram of Y/C and Audio Switcher
has a 170 MHz small signal bandwidth,

Profiling RF Parabolas
By George w. Allen, N1BEP curve. If the dish is too flat, the image cut out. This is T in figure 3, the
will fall outside the focus, and lifting template.
The focal length of parabolas to be the mirror will bring the moving mirror
used for antenna reflectors may be image into focus. This half-parabola template can then be
found by temporarily cementing small rotated about the centre line C/L in
(one centimetre square) mirrors around figure 3, to observe the areas where the
the edge of the dish at the four dish deviates from a true parabola. For
quadrants, as shown in figure 1. The best accuracy, it may be necessary to
dish is then aimed at the sun on some refine the curvature of the template by
temporary mount, and a small white re-cutting the profile.
target is positioned so that the four
mirror images coincide. This reflected Only a true parabola will reflect r. f.
image is at the focal point and phase waves constructively to the focal point,
centre of the parabola, at which to but mirrors reflecting sunlight can be
locate the RF feed. The target should be arranged to shine on the focal point
temporarily mounted at this focal point. while not being on the true parabola.
A one-metre plastic ex-TV dish was

obtained to be used as for the low GHz.
microwaves. In locating the focus, it
was found that about twenty percent of
the dish area would not reflect to the
focus, and so the expected gain could
FIGURE 2. Parabola with not be reached. The plastic had
mirrors reflecting an area of evidently deformed with aging.
distortion in the parabola,
DELTA. The resulting image at
the focal plane shows a
displacement of one mirror
image, E, where r. f. energy
FIGURE 1. Parabola aimed at would not be picked up by the
the sun, with mirrors mounted feed to the parabola.
around the edge. F. L. denotes
the focal length from the centre Conversely, if the dish has too much
to the focal plane of the image, I. curvature, the movable image will cross
Note that the parabola should not the focal point to the other side of the
reflect much sunlight, or it will focus, DELTA area in figure 2.This FIGURE 3. A cross section of a
override the small mirror images. method will allow marking the parabola is shown with a
deviating areas of the dish. template, T, cut to follow the
If the dish is distorted, one or more of parabolic curve from the centre
the mirror images will not fall on the In order to check the results, a profile line, C/L, to the edge. This
locus of images, but will fall onto one of the parabolic section can be made by template may then be rotated
side, as shown by E in figure 2. locating a stiff paper template from the around the centre to show where
Another small mirror may then be centre of the dish to an edge, as shown areas of the parabola deviate
moved around the dish to determine the in figure 3. This should be located on a from a true parabolic curve, area
places where the dish is not a true radius believed to be on the true DELTA.
parabola, and whether the dish is parabola. The profile of the parabola is
distorted plus or minus from an ideal traced on the paper, and the pattern is
Dont forget the ENIGMA CONVENTION and

ANNUAL RALLY on Sunday the 7th of May
2000
Circuit Notebook 70
By John Lawrence GW3JGA
SSD and SMD

I recently purchased a kit of parts for
building the very nice little 24cms
TX/driver unit as described in CQ-TV
185 pages 22-28. The components
needed very careful handling; some
were SMD (Surface Mount Devices),
very small and fiddly. The VCO
module and some other devices were
SSDs (Static Sensitive Devices) and
easily damaged by a discharge of static
electricity. In view of this I decided to
take the necessary precautions so that
the SSDs could be unpacked, handled
and assembled without being subjected
to any electrostatic discharges.
Static Electricity
Static electricity is a common Years ago, my old workbench had a earth, without a series resistor. If the
phenomenon, producing clinging real wood surface, grubby, scratched, soldering iron does not have an earth
clothes, the zap when sliding out of coffee stained and with the odd wire already, it will be necessary to fit
your car, etc. It can be generated by the soldering iron burn. Because it had a clip to the tip and attach an earthing
parting of two dissimilar materials, by such poor electrical insulation it would wire to this. For obvious reasons, dont
the rubbing of dissimilar materials have been ideal for handling SSDs, any solder on live equipment.
(tribo-charging) and induced by static charge would have leaked away
electrostatic fields from charged quite quickly. Now, my bench has an
persons or objects. insulating plastic laminate top and is Test Equipment
not at all suitable, so I need a static Test equipment should be earthed
dissipative bench mat (e.g. Maplin directly to prevent similar problems to
My Chair CH47B). The mat is connected to my those posed by the soldering iron. In
For example, my shack chair is the common earth point through a lead in most cases test equipment will already
usual swivel type with 5 plastic castors. series with a 1Mohm resistor, as before. be earthed because of coax cables and
When I sit on it and roll across the other interconnections.
carpet I become charged to about 4000
volts. If I touch the corner of the metal The Operator
filing cabinet I can draw a small spark, Now what about me? If I walk, with The Static Safe Work Area.
this would be sudden death to an SSD. my vinyl-soled shoes on the nylon An overall view of the Static Safe
carpet, or move about in my polyester Work Area is shown in Fig.1 above.
To make my chair safe, I decide on a shirt, my body may become
common earth point nearby (e.g. the electrostatically charged. To prevent The work area must be clear of
earth pin of a mains socket) and this, I need to wear a conductive wrist- insulating plastic bags and boxes,
connect the chair to it through a strap (e.g. Maplin FE29G), which is which otherwise might introduce static
flexible curly cord in series with a connected to my common earth point charges, only the black static
1Mohm resistor. The resistor limits the through its curly cord and the included dissipative types should be used.
discharge current and dissipates any 1Mohm resistor. Direct electrical
charge generated by moving the chair. connection of my wrist would What I have described may seem like
Direct earthing of the chair might pose definitely be a safety hazard! overkill when applied to the home
a safety hazard to the operator. workshop, but if you are handling an
expensive integrated circuit (e.g. a
The Soldering Iron
Mitsubishi RF Power Module costing
The Bench Here the problem is different. An 45) then the precautions are well
The workbench needs to have an unearthed soldering iron may have high worth taking.
electrically dissipative surface, to 50 Hz voltages present on the bit due to
dissipate and conduct away any charge, capacitive coupling between the It should be remembered that
which might otherwise build up on heating element and the casing of the electrostatic damage to a
objects placed on it. bit. Because of this, the soldering iron semiconductor device may not show up
bit should be connected directly to

as an immediate catastrophic failure but Devices. This little book, which is 2.Maplin Catalogue, Antistatic
could easily result in reduced published by Babani and available from section.
performance and/or a shortened Maplin, is excellent value at 4.99.
operating life. Chapter 5 Hand working with SMDs 3.Bill Mooney, A Practical
has just the right kind of information Introduction to Surface Mount
for the home constructor. Devices.
Surface Mount Devices (SMDs) Recommended.
I had intended setting out my personal Babani Electronics Books No. BP 411
hints and tips for handling, placing and (Maplin GS42).
soldering SMDs, but in the course of References
gathering information I came across a 1.RS Data Sheet RS ESD Products,
booklet by Bill Mooney entitled A Electromail (RS Components Ltd.)
Practical Introduction to Surface Mount
TV on the air
By Graham Hankins G8EMX A trip to Birminghams Maplin 4pm Stand layout finalised. As self-
emporium was needed to obtain the declared King of the Sellotape I am
tuning and variable pots, and oh dear refixing the banner advertising the
Constructing the Dove can someone make a video of how to Bletchley Park Rally. All is as set as it
receiver assemble those connector blocks? It can be, retire to caravan (then pub) to
With a licensed ATV repeater so close looks easy, but I had a terrible job await opening of show tomorrow.
to the Lea Valley Leisure Centre, it was getting those spring contacts to lock
decided to attempt to arrange some into position within the block!
Day 2 Saturday,
actual ATV for the BATC stand at the 10am - exhibition opens. We
March show at Picketts Lock. I There is absolutely nothing to adjust, so desperately need more room on the
therefore decided to build the Bob there was no great surprise when a BATC table, so my beloved repeater
Platts 24cm Rx and hopefully have it in picture appeared first time (after tuning map has to go. Roger is already there,
use, on demonstration, over the in, of course!). Im a very careful receiving GB3EN and has provided a
exhibition weekend. constructor you see hi! It took me about transmitter and camera to put pictures
six hours to build (yes, for reference, I in, plus look through, which proves to
The paperwork with the kit comprises did note the time) be a main attraction throughout the day.
six A4 pages of building guidelines, a Then Brian Summers appears with (lots
components list, board layout and No sensitivity or other performance of!) books and CQ-TVs, followed by
circuit diagram. I normally choose to tests have been performed, but the Tom Mitchell with Bletchley Park
place resistors first, value by value i.e. Dove kit receives ATV, which is leaflets! We eventually sort out all
all the 470 ohms etc. I find this much what it says on the tin! this stuff - meanwhile the punters are
quicker than trying to find the value filling the hall. Very shortly later, the
that is R1, then R2 etc. Same with first new member is signed up, and
capacitors and here I had to use the lens Picketts Lock some stock is moved. Very shortly after
from a slide projector to see some of Day 1 Friday setting up. THAT, an ex ATVer arrives at the
the printed values! One particular 10am Some exhibitors already table to give us a load of BATC books
component was new to me what is a 0 preparing tables in Red Hall, Blue Hall back!
Ohms link (plain body, black band) not yet available.
Bob? There are several normal wire
Day 3 Sunday.
links too, also some socket positions 12 noon Plan is to receive the 24cm Quieter than yesterday, but punter
not used in the basic kit, so be careful Enfield ATV GB3EN repeater so John numbers gradually build. Receiver kit
because there will be holes left over Douglas G4DVG and Roger G8IUC continues to sell, helped by built
hi! arrive to put 24cm and 2M antennas on version on show and kit documentation
Picketts Lock roof! This had been on view.
A glance at the receiver photo in a agreed with RadioSport and Southgate
CQ-TV confirmed that the ICs were ARS some weeks before. Tables for Happy Birthday GB3EN! So begins
soldered directly into the board no Blue Hall being unloaded and arranged. the March newsletter from the North
sockets. But were they static-sensitive?
London Television Group (NLTG) to
The instructions did not mention any 2pm Feeder cables descending from mark 12 months from the initial switch
precautions, so in they went. I found roof onto BATC stand, which is now on of the Enfield 24cm ATV repeater
that the legs of the dual-in-line ICs nearly covered by exhibition goodies. on 12th March 1999.
needed a gentle squeeze to fit the rows Dove receiver connected to monitor
of holes, and I would have been and powered up. Picture appears
advised to put the ICs in before the That switch -on coincided with the
straight away, things look good. Saturday of the Picketts Lock Rally last
electrolytic capacitors.

year, so the BATC stand was happy to easily dismantled for inspection or Subscriptions and other reducing
announce this new arrival. However, further improvements. income is causing sufficient concern
for the March 2000 event a couple of for the newsletter to begin talking of
months ago, we were able to go one The Severnside Group is considering eventual closedown of the Group and,
better by arranging to be able to the replacement of the BBC micro of course, its repeaters, which includes
work via GB3EN from the BATC control by a Pentium based PC. This ATV repeater GB3GV. Any members
table. would offer the possibility of a huge with outstanding annual subscriptions
number of features to be added so the are urged to renew quickly! The LRG
The Rally is organiser by RadioSport Group is seeking the views of its can be found on the Web at
and the Southgate ARS, so we had members before committing substantial http://www.metalmike.free-
arranged with these and with John quantities of expense and time! The online.co.uk/lrg/
Douglas G4DVG, who is secretary of questionnaire on the back page of their
the NLTG, to have a table position newsletter lists eight repeater upgrade Finally, for anyone planning to visit
suitable for running a length of feeder projects also eight potential kit The Dome at Greenwich, a few TV
from an antenna on the roof of the projects! STG members are urged to related tips, and a few non TV
blue hall. This all had to be installed respond to this for further consideration related ones hi! There is a lot to see
on the Friday afternoon before the by the STG committee. before you even get into the Dome
rally, of course, so John Douglas and itself; allow at least half an hour to
Roger Glover G8IUC arrived with an Another reliable correspondent is the view the videos in the information area
helical antenna on a tripod, metres of Home Counties ATV Group with its near the bus terminus; make sure you
reasonable feeder and a hard hat! Roger Line Out newsletter. No major visit the Sky TV chroma key Studio
found his way up to the roof, John rebuilds of GB3HV here, but several with very nice kit to inspect, plus live
communicated via 2M and very soon circuit changes to tweak the demonstrations of the Open
there appeared lengths of feeder performance or to remove annoying interactive TV shopping/Email etc
dropping down amazingly near our problems. I always find these detailed system.
table location! A built Dove receiver circuit changes most fascinating;
was powered up and the EN test card genlock line wobble caused by poor Once inside the Dome, absolutely loads
output appeared on the monitor at P5. recovered syncs from the stripper stage of video presentations to view, wide
stage re-biased and a big C put right screen flat TV screens everywhere;
For the rally proper, Roger provided a on top of the timebase IC to remove make sure you pick up a voting card
satellite receiver (the built Dove Rx mV of video from the DC supply. Total from various info desks AND use it
was for folks to examine while they loss of sync lock caused by TOO AND download it (yes, it is a smart
considered buying the kit!) and his own MUCH line sync into the timebase IC! card) after leaving the Dome. I arrived
transmitter. GB3EN was monitored at 11am (paying cash on the day, but
live throughout the rally weekend, Unfortunately, and in contrast, the dont rely on doing this) and my timed
with pictures from the rally transmitted Leicester Repeater Group does not ticket for the Body Zone was for 4pm.
into the repeater and simultaneously appear to be enjoying any good fortune If you cannot stay that long (I couldnt)
received as look through. Several at the moment. The February 2000 get there early you will need more
other stations appeared on EN, so edition of LENS announces the than One Amazing Day anyway
visitors were able to witness actual Annual General Meeting for 27th April trust me on this one!
ATV in action. at a venue to be announced.
The North London TV Group

newsletter lists 20 stations that can
see EN and many can access EN too.
Many of Bob Platts Dove receiver
kits moved over the weekend, so lets
hope a few of these actually get built
and more folks at least start to look at
EN and other repeaters around the
country.
The ever faithful Severnside ATV

Group has sent me its latest newsletter,
P5. This Spring 2000 issue runs to 10
pages, including a 4 page GB3ZZ
Upgrade! It may be difficult to
imagine how ZZ could be substantially
upgraded, but the antenna system has
been completely replaced, including an
improved transmit Alford-Slot antenna,
transmitted deviation has increased to
near the maximum allowed and the John Douglas G4DVG (left, secretary, NLTG) and Roger Glover G8IUC
entire antenna system redesigned to be with helix antenna used to work GB3EN during Picketts Lock Show.
Worthing Video Repeater Group
GB3VR GB3RV & GB7VRB
www.videorepeater.co.uk
1Watt FM-TV 24cms Transmitter
The 1 watt transmitter generates its signal at the wanted

frequency which can be set anywhere in the band, colour or
B/W. On board intercarrier sound and fixed pre-emphasis are
standard features. The kit includes the PCB all the on board
components, pre-drilled heat sink, an Eddystone Di-cast box and
full and comprehensive instructions. Building time is three
evenings work. The new price for this kit is 85.00, P&P 2.50.
Available to licenced radio amateurs only.
Two channel phased locked loop kit.
This add-on kit vastly improves the overall stability of the 1-watt
transmitter two crystal locked channels and a third free running
tuning position are available. Kit price 30.00
Amiga ATV Program-2
The New Amiga ATV program has more features than ever, up
to 56 testcards, 20 wipes, superb text control, 30 screens of text
messages, QRA calc, Testcard music, selectable displays, and
this version has a DTMF tone pad to control your repeater. All
testcards are over-scan i.e. the whole screen is used, Load in
your own customised testcards, Extra large text, scrolling text,
clock, callsign extensions, Hot key operation, Doc reader, ATV
Cli, Cross Hatches, Purity and a comprehensive section for
genlock users. For any Amiga with 1meg or more, state callsign
and QRA (if known) when ordering, this three disk set is now
only 10.00 P&P 75p
Video AGC Kit

The Video AGC is capable of excepting signal levels in the range of 0.15Vpk-pk to 2.5Vpk-pk and generating a
constant output level of approximately 1Vpk-pk Kit. Price 20.00 + P&P 75p
PC-ATV now available, see web site for details.
Visit the all new GB3VR-RV web site at:- http://www.videorepeater.co.uk/
Orders should be sent to: -
Treasurer of GB3VR, R. Stephens, 21 St. James Ave., Lancing, Sussex, BN15 0NN.
Cheques payable to "WVRG" Tel (01903) 765760 7 to 8pm.
In Retrospect
There were several errors in the IC table
on page 18 of CQ-TV 189, at the end of
the 625 line to 30 line converter article.
The correct (I hope) version is shown
below.
IC Table
10nF ceramic decoupling
capacitors to be connected across
each IC. Unused CMOS inputs to
be connected to 0V.
To simplify the circuit diagram
the connections to Vdd and 0V are
not shown on CMOS ICs
No. Type Vdd 0V
1 LM1881 8 4
2 74HC02 14 7
3 74HC4040 16 8
4 4001 14 7
5 4024 14 7
6
7
4082
4046
14
16
7
8 S. Marshall
8 4516 16 8
9 4516 16 8 20dB gain 10GHz horns 25.00
10 4516 16 8
11 4516 16 8 Waveguide 16 and 17 flanges 5.00
12 74HC257 16 8 Slot antennas and filters made to order.
13 74HC257 16 8
14 74HC257 16 8 For further information, contact: -
15 74HC257 16 8
16 74HC75 5 12 S. Marshall, G6NHG,
17 74HC75 5 12 25 Carlcroft,
18 74HC00 14 7 Stonydelph,
19 HM6264A 28 14 Tamworth,
20 74HC00 14 7
21 4520 16 8
Staffs., B77 4DL.
22 CA3140 7 4
23 4528 16 8 Telephone: 01827 897920. 7:30pm -
24 CA3306E 12 3 10pm weekdays.

Satellite TV News.
satellites at his location. Although those tracking use. This operates with a
By Paul Holland G3TZO satellites having a footprint targeted on home-brew control unit fitted out with
Welcome to another edition of Satellite Europe will not be receivable there are a C/Ku co-rotor at the sharp end which
TV News. This issue reflects your news now an increasing number that do carry feeds a network of three splitter
and views and also tries to cover some European programming to the US. The /combiners feeding both C band & Ku
basic ground for those still opening of EUTELSATs Atlantic band signals to an ODM300 digital RX
contemplating joining the digital gateway at 12.5W and Telstar 12 at used ninety nine percent of the time for
satellite TV revolution. 15.0 Deg W will further extend this news feeds. Also being fed with C / Ku
capacity. John says currently I have a band signals is my trusty old Echostar
10 ft dish without descrambler but there SR-8700, getting on a bit now, but has
Post Bag is little to commend it to a viewer other been as solid as a rock since day one,
A number of people are currently than satisfaction of curiosity, HI! Let many many years ago.
interested in using their PC to control a us know how you go on with your
Digital Satellite Receiver. Douglas John GOCCV, John Bodle G7WHX
Gibbs wrote asking for an update on and John Tournier G3INZ all confirm
the Win 95 program called D their interest in going digital. G3INZ is
REMOTE V1 mentioned back in still using his old analogue Discus
CQTV No 180. This fully Ellipse with a motorised 1.3m antenna.
programmable d-box remote control John, G7WHX is interested in the
programme was an early development RSD3000 and John G0CCV in the new
for those trying to exploit the capability
of the Nokia Mediaboxes (D Boxes).
The most popular current software for
these receivers including the Nokia
9600 is the DVB2000 (by Dr
Overflow) which was described by
John Rainer in his excellent article in
CQTV 186. As reported by John Telstar 12 (Orion2) at 15 Deg W
DVB2000 has a comprehensive array
of features that in addition to reception from Europe John.
controlling every function and
parameter of the receiver also now Brian Alderson G3KJX writes in to
include MPEG2 hard-disk Record/ say, Please can you help? I am part
Playback. Details can be found at owner of a villa in Portugal. Some of Astra 2A (North Beam)
http://www.dominance.net/overflow/. the other owners want Sky Digital. I
know that officially it is not available Echostar AD3000IP more of this
out there but some insist that it is later.
obtainable. Can you tell me where I am
likely to obtain the information The
Barry Gunstone has sent some
best and most up to date reference data photographs of his very chilly looking
for satellite positions, footprints and QTH in Sweden. He uses a perforated
transponder loading can be found at the
1.3-meter dish and actuator connected
Lyngemark Satellite Chart on
an old Monterey 40 with an external
http://www.lyngsat.com/index.html Pace 100 Videocrypt decoder plus a 1-
meter dish on 28.0 E screwed to the
Astra 2A, which carries the Sky digital balcony connected to a Sky Digibox
service at 28.0E, utilises separate North (Pace). He says I get great digital 16:9
and South beams. Each transponder is pictures with the Digibox in
Screen grab from RX using allocated to one or the other beam. This
DVB200 conjunction with my Christmas present
means that some services are receivable to myself, a 32-inch windscreen 100Hz
A general point for the faint hearted in Spain/Portugal with a 50cm dish, Dolby pro logic 5/6 channel surround
like me (and definitely not the amateur whereas others may require a much sound Philips TV. He also has a larger
spirit!) is that using software like this larger dish (1.0m plus) depending on
1.2 meter dish pointed at 1.0 W and a
will inevitably invalidate any guarantee how far South and West the location is.
smaller 90cm dish on 5.0 E that are
from Nokia, although the software is
connected to a Grundig D2MAC
well supported by the authors via their John Gaut, G0CCV has given details of Receiver. A further 90cm black
web page. equipment in use at his QTH. He says,
perforated dish on 19,2 E shown in the
At home I use a 1.8mtr IRTE prime picture is connected to a RSD ODM3-
John Jaminet, W3HMS enquires as to focus dish with a H-H mount modified
00 FTA digital receiver. Thanks for the
likely reception from European with a little 6 inch actuator for inclined

photo below Barry and try and keep
warm!!
the centre, the onion's core, is the
payload, which is the useful bit rate.
Surrounding this is a series of layers to
make the signal less sensitive to errors,
and to arrange the payload in a form
suitable for broadcasting. The video,
audio, and other data are inserted into
fixed-length MPEG Transport Stream
packets. The packetised data constitutes
the payload.
A number of stages of processing

follow:
The data are formed into a regular

structure by inverting
synchronisation bytes, every eighth
packet header.
The contents are randomised.

Barry Gunstone at his Swedish Dish Farm
A Reed-Solomon Forward Error-
FEC: Forward Error Correction. A Correction (FEC) overhead is then
Digital Basics Reed-Solomon Forward Error- added to the packet data.
With so much interest in digital Correction overhead is added to the
reception it is probably worth going MPEG 2 packet data. This is a very
Convolutional Interleaving is
over some of the basics. A quick efficient system that adds only about
glossary of the key terms used is a good applied to the packet contents.
8% overhead to the signal.
start;
MPEG-2: Refers to the standard Following this, a further error-
BER: Bit Error Ratio The preferred ISO/IEC 13818 [1]. Systems coding is correction system is added, using a
way of measuring link integrity. Most defined in part 1. Video coding is punctured Convolutional Code.
measuring equipment for DVB defined in part 2. Audio coding is This second error-correction
downlink performance measurement defined in part 3. system, the Inner Code, can be
will monitor the BER. adjusted, in the amount of
overhead, to suit the needs of the
Multiplex: A stream of all the digital
service provider.
Bouquet: A collection of services data carrying one or more services
marketed as a single entity such as Sky within a single physical channel.
Digital in the UK, AB-SAT in France Finally, the signal is used to
or Stream in Italy. modulate the satellite broadcast
Network: A collection of MPEG-2
carrier using quadrature phase-shift
Transport Stream (TS) multiplexes
keying (QPSK).
CAM: Conditional Access Module. A transmitted on a single delivery system,
PCMCIA card which fits into the CI e.g. all digital channels on a specific
slot of a DVB receiver. Cards for the satellite. In essence, between the multiplexing
various CAS such as Irdeto, Viaccess, and the physical transmission, the
Conax are all now available in the UK system is tailored to the specific
SR: Symbol Rate refers to the symbol
channel properties. The system is
rate for the link between the modulator
arranged to adapt to the error
CAS: Conditional Access System .A and demodulator in the system.
characteristics of the channel. Burst
system to control subscriber access to
errors are randomised, and two layers
services, programmes and events e.g. SimulCrypt: DVB SimulCrypt of forward error correction are added.
Irdeto, Viaccess, Seca, Mediaguard.. standard addresses the requirements for The second level, or Inner Code, can be
interoperability between one or more adjusted to suit the circumstances
CI: Common Interface. A PCMCIA CA systems. (power, dish size, bit rate available).
slot within a DVB receiver that accepts There are thus two variables for the
an appropriate CAM for the required service provider: the total size of the
bouquet or service. The Theory
'onion' and the thickness of the second
The DVB-S system was designed to error-correction outer 'skin'. In each
DVB (S): Digital Video Broadcasting cope with the full range of satellite case, in the home, the receiver will
by Satellite transponder bandwidths and is a single- discover the right combination to use
carrier system. One way of picturing it by very rapid trial and error on the
is to consider it as a kind of 'onion'. In received signal. An appropriate

combination of payload size and Inner
Code can be chosen to suit the service
operator's environment.
One example of a parameter set would

be for a 36 MHz transponder to use a
3/4 Convolutional Code, in which case
a useful bit rate of about 39 Mbit/s will
be available as the payload. The 39
Mbit/s (or other bit rates allowed by
parameter sets for a given satellite
transponder) can be used to carry any
combination of MPEG-2 video and
audio. Thus, service providers are free
to deliver anything from multiple-
channel SDTV, 16:9 Widescreen
EDTV or single-channel HDTV, to
Multimedia Data Broadcast Network
services and Internet over the air.
A full hand of Cams & Cards
Conditional Access Systems

The Common Scrambling Algorithm The reason for this is that most The difference to be found in digital
used in DVB allows inter-working commercial broadcasters target a receivers is usually whether they have a
between Conditional Access Systems in specific area for which they have CI slot or are just FTA plus;
a method known as "SimulCrypt". programme rights and usually try to
SimulCrypt allows the same broadcast monopolise the market through Some have analogue capability as
(with different embedded CA bit establishing the pre-eminence of their well as digital
streams) to be viewed on several favoured encryption standard. In the
different CA-equipped receivers. UK we have Mediaguard encryption Some have DiSEqC 1.0 switching
Examples of this are quite common (Sky Digital), in France they have capability (22kHz tone switching)
with a number of channels encrypting Viaccess, in Benelux countries they
in say Irdeto and Viaccess have Irdeto and in Scandinavia they
have Conax. Even in these areas there Some have pseudo motorised
simultaneously on the same frequency.
are competing broadcasters with capability (DiSEqC 1.2)
The Common Interface (CI) is an
interface between a standard PCMCIA variations on a theme such as the
module and a DVB receiver. Plug-in Spanish Seca version of Mediaguard. Some have true motorised
PCMCIA modules using the DVB capability (36v motor drive)
Common Interface are readily available The first digital receivers had
in the UK. This solution also allows Conditional Access Modules built in. Some control polariser skew on
broadcasters to use modules containing The first Nokia Mediamaster receivers analogue only
solutions from different suppliers in the (D-Boxes) had an integral Irdeto
same broadcast system, thus increasing module but could also receive Free to Some control skew on analogue
their choice and anti-piracy options. Air (FTA) services. More recent and digital
The Common Interface operates at the receivers are either built purely as FTA
MPEG Transport Stream level, and (with no decoding capability) or have a
although specifically intended for Common Interface (CI) slot. This Echostar AD3000IP
conditional access, it can also be used means that they either have one or two All this leads nicely to reporting on my
in other applications, such as for slots that will accept a CAM for the latest acquisition for the shack from
Electronic Program Guides. service you want to view. To view an Echostar the all singing all dancing
encrypted digital service you therefore AD3000IP. Unfortunately cold weather
need; has prevented testing the full-motorised
The Practice capability of the RX but early
Having got this far its probably worth A receiver with a CI slot (or impressions are favourable. In
considering how all this translates into integral CAM) comparison to the Nokia 9600 the
the practical aspects of getting started AD3000IP menu system is much more
with digital reception. A CAM (Irdeto, Viaccess, Conax flexible. Channels can be stored by
etc) appropriate to the service you satellite. Digital channels appear first in
Those trying to make sense of digital want to receive (usually about the channel menu followed by any
TV broadcasting could be forgiven for 89.0 each) analogue services. Switching between
being confused!! It seems that digital and analogue is reasonably fast
broadcasters have deliberately tried to however the analogue picture quality
A smart card for the service you
make things difficult by choosing a suffers in comparison to the excellent
want to receive (varying prices -
large number of encryption standards. performance from digital services.
some legal, others not!)

Channels searches can be made for
FTA only or a global scan of services
on that satellite. DiSEqC 1.0 switching
is available however most users will
prefer to use the full-motorised
capability. I will provide further notes
on performance in the next issue.
Channel News
TV3, TV6, TV8, TV1000 and ZTV
were due to launch in digital on April
25 from Sirius 3 using Viaccess. It is
reported that the current Eurocrypt-M
D2-MAC cards will be compatible with
the Viaccess encryption.
A new Danish entertainment is

scheduled to start in the autumn and
will be called TV2+.
BRT is available in the clear on 11.492 Ekspress 3A Ku Band Coverage

GHz (V), SR 30000, and FEC from
EUTELSAT W3 at 7.0E.
Italian digital channel

MEDIOLANUM is testing in clear on
12.540 GHz (H), (SR 27500, FEC 3/4)
from Hotbird 1-5 at 13.0E.
ZDF DOCU, EUROSPORT and

EURONEWS can be found as FTA on
11.954 GHz (H), SR 27500, FEC
from Astra at 19.2 E.
Health channels confirm launch

plans. Discovery has confirmed it
plans to launch a health channel later
this year. The service is likely to be
available through Sky Digital.
Artsworld, an arts pay-TV channel, is

expected to launch as part of Sky
Digital by the end of the year.
BBC Prime announced its D2-Mac

service would close from 15th March Ekspress 3A C Band Coverage
2000 although digital transmissions
continue from Hot Bird at 13 Deg E
and in FTA via Intelsat 707 at 1 degree accommodate more than 20 antennas
west.
New Winchester Teleport within four years.
Cable company NTL I is opening a
second major teleport near Winchester.
The 81,000 square meter site will Ekspress-3A
Satellite Launch Vehicle Launch Window Position Tps A second satellite in the new Ekspress-
Intelsat 901 Ariane 1st Qtr. 2001 62E >96 A series called Ekspress-3A is to be
Intelsat 902 Proton/Ariane 1st Qtr. 2001 60E >96 launched in June and positioned at 11
degrees West. This spacecraft has 5 Ku
Intelsat 903 Ariane/Proton 2nd Qtr. 2001 24.5W >96
band tps (11.450-11.700 GHz) and 12
Intelsat 904 Ariane 3rd Qtr. 2001 34.5 W >96
C band tps (3.600-4.200 and will
Intelsat 905 TBA 4th Qtr. 2001 27.5W >96
replace the ageing Statsionar-11
Intelsat 906 TBA TBA 18.0WE >96 (Gorizont-26) satellite.
Intelsat 907 TBA TBA 31.5W >96
Intelsat IX Launch Schedule

GE Amercicom (Telstar)
http://www.geamericom.com/
Panamsat;
http://www.panamsat.com/
Conclusion
Thats it again for another edition of
Satellite TV News. Please do keep
writing and sending the e-mails. In the
next issue I hope to add further
experiences with the new Echostar
AD3000IP and hope to include some
details of the station set up here at
Threapwood Teleport. As usual the e-
mail contact is
paul.holland@btinternet.com or by
phone on 01948 770476 (fax 01948
770552).
Intelsat 903 25.5 W Coverage
Intelsat IX Series Satellites Eutelsat News

The forthcoming Intelsat IX series of Eutelsat I-F4 is moving to a new
satellite will be built by Space position at 33 degrees East. Eutelsat I-
Systems/Loral and are designed to F5 will be placed at 40 Deg E.
replace the INTELSAT VI satellites.
The series will comprise four satellites Sesat was due to be launched via a
with increased flexibility, advanced Proton launcher on April 4. It will be
design, and higher capacity than any positioned at 36 Deg E.
other INTELSAT satellite series. The
satellites will provide digital services Useful Links
such as SNG, DAMA, Internet, DTH
and VSAT Networks. The following URLs may be of
interest: -
The INTELSAT IX Series has
expanded beam coverage, superior Launch News;
e.i.r.p. and G/T, in both C-Band and
Ku-Band compared to previous Intelsat http://www.lyngsat.com/launches.shtml
satellites. They will allow flexible
allocation of satellite capacity with full Intelsat;
inter-connection among beams, Coverage Eutelsat W4
including cross-connection between C- http://www.intelsat.com/
Band and Ku-Band. Ku-Band DTH
services will allow reception with 60 Eutelsat;
cm. antennas. http://www.eutelsat.org/home.html
From Wireless 1926 I like, too, the attitude of the pirate who of something like "Digital Video -
was recently relieved by a magistrate of Questions and Answers" (and authors
Royalties! a couple of Fishers for possessing no name). I would suggest that the stuff on
One of the best radio stories of the license. His set, which was made up in 1394 onwards might make a separate
week is that of the man who wrote to a a soap box, was installed under his bed, instalment - it may need to be split even
firm of wireless manufacturers, from and he protested vigorously that if the further, alhough I had got it down from
whom he had purchased a receiving set. license fee were paid the Post Office 15 to 10 pages (in larger type size than
To complain that he had been done. He authorities should install the aerial and used for the magazine). Regarding his
explained that that the catalogue price the wireless set, just as they put in the copyright notice, I wonder if 'Adapted
was stated to include royalties, but that telephone when you paid for that. from an article by ...., whose copyright
so far he had not heard from any is reserved' (or something along those
member of the royal family! When I came to in the night - as one
lines) should appear at the end of each
does - I was thinking about the above. I
Value for Money instalment. (Have not got his text up in
wonder if it might appear under a title
front of me).

TANDATA Videotex Terminals - RAM Upgrade
By Graham Baker, ZL1TOF RAMs in Z2 and Z14. The link L17 for 32k x 8 RAM, TC55257BPI-10L,
(L12 on LC1) is removed and installed CXK58257AP10L.
Some time ago Tandata Videotex in L16 (L11 on LC1). This gives 6
terminals were purchased by numerous stored pages, or 13 stored pages with 2- A latch circuit is used to select the
amateurs. Some were gutted for other 8k RAMs. In the Td4000 it is possible upper two address lines of the 32k x 8
applications, some are in use for to fit a 32k RAM in Z14 along with a RAM. The 74HC gate must be used as
amateur TV, while the remainder are latch to give 37 pages. the battery powers it and other types
gathering dust in the corners of shacks could cause data failure or premature
Figure 1. Schematic of 32k RAM adaptor.
everywhere. Originally these units The RAM is backed up by a PCB battery failure.
were designed to work with a mounted Lithium coin cell. If this cell
mainframe computer. In 1985 many is to last a few more years special low The wire goes to C15 on the main PCB
services were available, but today as far power static RAM chips should be near Z10 and the resistor is connected
as I know there is no service. used. Speed is not a problem and any to the anode of D4 to pick up the +5
RAM available today is fast enough. volt supply. The circuit could be built
A common request is for more memory Suitable types for the 8k x 8 RAM are on a piece of strip board with a few
for more pages of text and HM6264ALP-15, GM76C88AL15, and wires. Watch the height of
pictures. The early Tandata Z2 Z14 Total Pages Page Names your 32k RAM adaptor as in
units had as few as no pages, the Td4000 there is about 18
while later models had 2, 6, 13 mm between the top of the
2k none 2k none
and 37 pages of storage. The LC2 PCB and the under side
two basic models are of the keyboard. If you have
identified simply by the PCB: 2k 2k 4k 2 A-B to use sockets then low profile
LC1 is single sided and LC2 is types need to be used and C56
double sided. Changing the 8k none 8k 6 A-F may need to be replaced with
memory is all that is needed to a radial type to allow space to
give additional pages. 8k 8k 16k 13 A-M fit your adapter.
On the LC2 (LC1), the 2k x 8 8k 32k 40k 37 1A-1M, 2A-2L, 3A-3L

RAMs (like CDM6116AE2)
can be replaced with 8k x 8

Repeater is the
premier ATV magazine
in Holland.
Repeater is a new ATV magazine published in the Netherlands

in Dutch. The 13/24cms TX in this issue is reprinted from
Repeater with the kind permission of the Editor Rob Ulrich
PE1LBP. I hope we can from time to time bring you other
extracts as we do with all the ATV magazines.
Information about Repeater magazine can be found on their

web site at http://www.euronet.nl/users/rulrich, email:
repeater-nl@rocketmail.com
Snail mail:- Gibbon 14, 1704 WH Heerhugowaard,

Netherlands.
Confidential Communications Ltd

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24cms Filter Experiment
By Brian V Davies GW4KAZ
With the establishment of GB3TM by
the Arfon Repeater Group in 1995, my
interest in ATV has increased, with
construction of ATV transmitters,
adapting satellite TV receivers, and
construction of antennas of various
configurations. This led to the ideal
situation of an ATV station, of being
able to see your own signal through the
repeater.
To enable me to do this, I needed

ample attenuation between my TX 1/2 wave trough filter
signal and my RX system.
It appeared a simple design and within Manual fourth edition, therefore
detailed construction of the filter can be
left to the individual.
Useful data is available in the manual,

giving dimensions that can be scaled to
any frequency.
Section 3.7 Table 1 gives dimensions

for 1/4 wave lines; the proposed filter
however is half wave so the dimensions
have to be doubled. There is also a
need to reduce these dimensions by
about 5% to enable the tuning capacitor
to bring the filter onto frequency. The
capacitor will lower the resonant
frequency of the filter.
Passband of single trough filter Section 7.7, Fig 18 gives some detail of
this type of filter; with Fig 19 giving
This could be achieved by the physical my constructional techniques, i.e. dimensions of a 1/4-wave filter that can
separation of the TX and RX antennas, hacksaw, measuring tape, and soldering be scaled to other frequencies.
or by constructing a bandpass filter iron. So, I decided to have a go.
system. Section 9.22 utilises the filter in a
Construction techniques have been different way to provide a doubler to
Since physically separating the two described in the RSGB, VHF/UHF 2304 MHz; again some detail is given
antennas was difficult, together with
attaining the signal levels from
GB3TM, I had no alternative but to
look at building a bandpass filter.
From studying what others, had

achieved, it appeared that an
interdigital filter was the unit that I
required. An excellent article on the
construction of interdigital bandpass
filters was in CQ-TV 187, by Ian
Waters G3KKD.
However I dont have the means of

precision engineering that is required to
build such a filter. I had to look for
alternatives, with the half wave trough Two-section filter.
type filter a possibility.

not what I required, and again some
head scratching came into play, with a
decision made to stack the filters.
Convention has it that each filter should

be connected by coaxial cable of
electrical length of a 1/4 wave. At 1316
MHz this length was less that 50mm,
taking the velocity factor into account,
and by the time connectors were fitted,
it got a bit fiddly!
I decided to do away with this

convention, and couple the filters as in
Fig3.
Again with the use of the spectrum

Passband of two-section filter
analyser the results now were getting
much nearer what I required. Fig 4
shows the bandpass characteristic of
this two-section filter.
Trying this filter on my home station, I

was getting breakthrough, but the
results were encouraging. I was not
there yet.
I went a step further and constructed a

three-section filter; the bandpass
characteristics are show in Fig 5.
Eureka I was there, a good -60dB of
attenuation, of my 1249 MHz signal,
with a bandpass centre frequency of
1316 MHz, a through loss of an
acceptable -1.2 dB, with a -3dB
Passband of three-section filter bandwidth of 20 MHz. I tried this filter
on my system, and it worked!
I am running 12 watts output on 1249

MHz, giving an erp of approximately
120 watts.
The centres of the two antennas are less

than a metre apart. I have a pre-amp on
my RX system giving a gain of 17dB.
In setting up our local 2-metre repeater

GB3AR, the filter system has one
bandpass filter and two notch filters,
the effect of the notch filters is
staggering.
For experimentation I built a 1/4-wave

trough to act as a notch filter and
Passband of two sections with notch filter attached this as Fig 6, the result is
shown in Fig 7. The notch has the
of possible constructional techniques. generator to carry out these tests; in effect of increasing the attenuation by
fact without the use of the analyser it at least -10dB at a specific frequency -
I constructed a filter as Fig 1, with would be very difficult to tune the filter a useful reference for the future.
passband characteristics given in Fig 2. onto frequency.
The latest ATV repeater to come on air,
I was fortunate in that I was able to use The results showed that I was on the on the 1st February, was GB3GW by
a spectrum analyser with a tracking right path. However the passband was the Arfon Repeater Group. Filters were

required for the repeater, which was to
operate with only 30 MHz between the
transmit and receive frequencies.
This gave a few problems, which will

be a subject of a separate article. I
produced filters for this repeater, i.e. a
three-section filter in the tx system and
a five section with two notch filters for
the rx system.
Passband of GB3GW rx filter Two section with notch filter
Fig 8 shows the passband of the rx bandwidth around the tx frequency, around 100dB could be attained.
filter giving 60dB attenuation at the tx since we are working with a broadband
frequency. signal. Five sections I think is a bit of overkill,
however it works with a through loss of
The two notch filters were staggered in If we tuned the two notch filters to the less than -2dB at the pass frequency.
frequency, so as to give more same frequency, then an attenuation of
Remember also we are working here
with a 30 MHz split frequency.
I have constructed the trough type

filter for 70cms, and a 1/4-wave
type for 2 metres, both with
encouraging results.
The 2-metre type (two 1/4 sections

coupled together) is being used by a
local amateur to suppress qrm from
the 150/160 MHz users!
One piece of equipment that is

essential in testing and setting up
these filters is the spectrum analyser
with tracking generator.
I now have the construction of these

filters down to a fine art, and can
provide built units if required.
E-mail: briankaz@dial.pipex.com
Tektronix Spectrum Analyser in use.

Television Repeater in Trouble
By John Senior G7RXS Radio Show, formerly held at Granby The only way forward is for the Group
(Chairman - Leicestershire Halls in Leicester and now at the somehow to increase its numbers of
International Exhibition Centre at members attending the Show as
Repeater Group) Castle Donington. What happens is that volunteer stewards and this is where
members of the various Leicestershire you can help. If you join the Group
The Leicestershire Repeater Group run
radio clubs, groups and societies (membership 10 per annum,
four repeaters, GB3CF 2 metre voice,
volunteer their services, free of cost, to concessions 7.50), necessary for
GB3LE 70cms voice, GB3UM 6
the Show Committee to perform all the insurance purposes, and turn up at the
metres voice and of more interest to
various portering, stewarding and other Show you will both help the Group and
this readership, GB3GV, their TV
tasks associated with the successful help to keep the GB3GV TV repeater
repeater run by David Payne G8OBP.
running of a large show of this nature. on the air. I myself have attended for
All volunteers gain free admission to all three days for the last 7 years and
Over the last couple of years the group the Show and depending on the number have thoroughly enjoyed it. One makes
have seen their income substantially of hours they work may get free meal many new friends and renews old
reduced and a shadow is now beginning and tea breaks. acquaintances not to mention getting
to creep over the long-term future of discount from some suppliers.
the group. Part of the problem is that
After the Show any surplus funds are
whilst they have a good site on high
distributed to the clubs providing Further details from John Senior, Email
ground with an 18-metre mast atop,
volunteer workers on a basis seniorja@aol.com or phone 0116 284
which gives them good coverage, their
proportionate to the number of hours of 1517
site is expensive to maintain. Rates,
support provided. Put more simply the
rent, electricity and insurance eat up
more hours the more funds. For various Email preferred as I work strange hours
over 600 per annum whilst their
reasons this groups share has reduced and really do like my bed just
subscription income falls well short of
considerably over the last two years occasionally.
this.
and in spite of many expenditure cuts
and cost saving measures put into place
Their main source of income has by the committee the future is still
always been the Leicester Amateur uncertain.
Digital TV deal for Zoran and Infineon

Infineon Technologies and Zoran are to Ruediger Stroh, senior vice-president markets, is increasingly seeking out
develop and license a highly integrated and general manager of Infineons partnerships across other markets.
single-chip digital TV decoder. computer and networking peripherals
group, said: 1 am excited to work with Alon Ironi, Zorans vice-president of
The device will integrate video, audio, Zoran. By combining its proven track engineering, said: We are excited to
graphics, communication, processing record in making such technologies like work with Infineons engineers on this
and embedded memory with the aim of DVD and Dolby Digital a standard challenging development. This
making it ideally suited for Internet- household item with [our] experience international collaborative development
connected TVs. The project also aims in the communication field, we expect project will enable us to reach a new
to create a complete system reference a success story for both companies as technological peak.
platform that will allow OEMs to well as for our customers.
reduce time to market. Reprinted from Electronics Times, 8th
Zoran, while retaining a primary focus March 2000. www.dotelectronics.com
on the DVD and digital camera

Post and News
use Center is Positive and this relates http://www.msnbc.com/news/227580.a
to the deep fear of having the plug sp
outer welled to the car floor, when the
lead is dropped. Although is practice During February 1999 the Mir crew
this is unlikely as cars have carpets, it was joined by French Astronaut, Jean-
is a good way of getting through a box Pierre Haignere who helped send many
of fuses through accidental loops, more fine pictures. The entire crew
collisions with aerial connectors etc. departed Mir in August, 1999 and Mir
is now running under computer control
Personally this phobia is so deep as I via Moscow. Many of us wonder what
find it beyond amusement to think that the above crewmembers are doing
many designers Still use the outer these days? If anyone has info about
positive approach. Do American cars them it would be interesting to know of
Please send all correspondence for Post still have positive earth (which also their activities. As to Mir itself, there is
and News to the CQ-TV Editor. Ian came from the GPO and Tramways in recent news that can be obtained by
Pawson, 14 Lilac Avenue, Leicester, UK)? I am seeing the shrink next week. bringing up the above URL and
LE5 1FN, England. clicking on the last referenced link at
D. J. Long, G3PTU the bottom of the text,
Tel: 0116 276 9425.
"MIR NEWS 29 December 1999
E-mail editor@cq-tv.com (472) or by entering:
Members sales and Trade adverts http://infothuis.nl/muurkrant/mirnw472

should be sent to the advertising .html
manager, Trevor Brown, 14 Stairfoot From the Internet
Close, Adel, Leeds, LS16 8JR. Further news on the possibility of the
reactivation of SSTV aboard Mir in the
Tel: 01132 670115. year 2000 and plans for Amateur Radio
SSTV aboard ISS will be related as it
Email: adman@batc.org.uk develops. Farrell Winder,
W8ZCF.
Dear Sirs,
The implication in the bolted on Bit With reference to my recent article

of the Circuit notebook No. 69 is that Low cost satellite ATV conversion
Hello All, and Graham Galbraith's reply in the
most of those PSUs in a plug top are
unregulated. While I would agree that a following CQTV edition:
large number are not in my experience Many of us will recall that one year ago
it is quite surprising how many are full today on January 1, 1999 we were Graham Galbraith, M0ADR's
blown psus. Even quite small ones entertained by a series of exciting comments are welcome regarding the
boast a plethora of components in there Amateur Radio SSTV pictures being use of inexpensive satellite equipment
little plastic confines. Failed ones sent from the Mir Space Station. for access to ATV.
should be dissected, (sometimes Commander Gennady Padalka sent
hacksaw time) as they are a good pictures of himself aboard Mir along I, like him, started out a few years ago
source of rectifiers and regulator chips with his Flight Engineer Sergei with a converted SRX200 and has
mostly 7805 & 7808s. These psus Avdeyev as they were celebrating New given me and probably may others an
appear to fail because of the thermal Year's Day. They showed us a New easy start into this interesting aspect of
fuse going o/c. As this usually hidden Year's tree and other gifts of a radio.
within the windings, the transformer is chocolate bear and apricot juice, which
just junk. they had received for the occasion.
Perhaps we should not underestimate
the use and significance of such kit. (I
On the also addressed subject of At last count more than 40 articles and still have a few in storage used for odd
standard of coax power plugs. Yes, news releases were made regarding projects!)
chose a common standard, and wire a SSTV from Mir. One of the stories ran
reverse Diode across the equipment by MSNBC on Jan 1, 99 is still running
The time aspect in my article however,
power input to save expensive things. I at:
relates to the many days and weeks

cumulative work of experimentation to Amstrad SRX200 does allow an easy Two interesting websites on ATV in
optimise 23cms reception with earlier entry with excellent results. Poland. The first is bilingual
generation receivers. (English/Polish), the second in Polish
Lets keep up the enthusiasm and use of only.
One could say that this in itself is well ATV!
worth the experience. http://friko4.onet.pl/wa/atv_sp5/index.h
Regards, Duncan Head, G7PNE tml
I agree that with a reasonable 10GHz
LNB conversion or close proximity to a www.kki.net.pl/~sq9apr
23cms repeater with a good LNA, the
Andy Emmerson.
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MAR-6 2.00 low noise Modamp equivalent to MSA-0685
Note that Mitsubishi have recently increased the price of some of the PA modules, including
the M57762
Now available The GH QUAD. 24cms solid state PA using 4xM57762 for up to 80W out
for ATV. Available as a mini-kit, including PCB, un-drilled heatsink, mounting plate and all
PCB-mounted components with full instructions. Check web site or ring for latest details.
This is a no-tune amplifier, but is not suitable for novice constructors. Construction notes
available free on the web site.
The above devices are always in stock. All other Mitsubishi PA modules and GaAsFETs
available to order, please ask for details. GH Engineering is able to supply many other RF
semiconductors that have become obsolete or difficult to find. All prices are full inclusive, but
please add 1.50 handling for orders under 10. Please send cheques made payable to GH
Engineering to the address above, or order by phone with any major credit card.
GH Engineering Tel 01256 869603
Email: sales@ghengineering.co.uk www.ghengineering.co.uk

Members adverts
Non trade advertisements are placed in this column

free of charge to paid up members only. Please
quote your membership number. Copy should be
sent to:-
CQ-TV Editor, 14 Lilac Avenue, Leicester, LE5
1FN, England.
E-mail: editor@batc.org.uk
For Sale
FOR SALE: A number of copies of TELEVISION ENGINEERING Vol 2. Barco CRM51 Colour monitor 50,
CQ-TV from the early 1970s can be Amos/Birkenshaw. iliffe Books. Mint Studer B62 Half track stereo tape deck
had from a shop called Quinton TV, copy with d/w. 6 with some tapes 75, Kingshill variable
College Road, Quinton, B32 1AB. Ring psu O-50v @ 5amps twice 19" Rack
0121-422 6075. Modest price. UNDERSTANDING TELEVISION. mount, metered 40, Nagra 1V-S Half
John Howkins. Sundial Books 1976. track portable tape recorder offers!!
Large format, well-illustrated sections Contact Ray Hill on 01989 762839,
including 'Upstairs-Downstairs' , ITN, email
RAYandNEIL@rayhilltv.freeserve.co.
History of TV etc. 5 uk
FOR SALE: For-A monochrome TVT
typewriter (VTW-100 caption INDEPENDENT TELEVISION IN
generator) and matching on-screen BRITAIN. Bernard Sendall. 1982. Vol
pointer (controlled by joystick). These 1. Origin & Foundation 1946-1962.
are low-end broadcast items, for 625- How ITV began. Invaluable history for
line system. Both clean and working, the TV scholar. 10 Sony HVC 2000 colour camera,
50 the pair from Tony Clayden 020- Pioneer PX7 Genlock computer
8361 8881 GIRL FILM & TELEVISION (MSX), Toshiba HX10 computer
ANNUAL No1 1957. No d/w. 6. 1st (MSX), Toshiba disk drive and DM
of this attractive series printer for same, 14in RGB Cub
monitor, 24cm aerial 28 element
G3JVL, 24cm Fred Smith 39 element
FANTASTIC TELEVISION.
aerial, BATC Mk 2 receiver PCB,
Gerani/Schulman. Titan Books 1987.
Books: - ITV ANNUAL 1964. ed Huw module and i/c sound chip, all new or
Lots of US/UK fantasy tv shows listed.
Thomas. Nice pictures of ITN, Fireball as new.
Illustrated. 3
XL5, studio scenes, Pye cameras. Spine
paper missing. 3. Monitors: 9in (6), 12in (3) b/w, all
MAGPIE ANNUAL 1973 & 1974. 1
external sync. Door phone monitors (3)
each
UNDERSTANDING TELEVISION. new, good viewfinders.
Ed. Robert Hilliard. Hastings House
All VGC. Postage minimum on all
1964. Many photos of tv equipment- 75m x H100 cable, new. 22in Mk3
items 1.50
vt-mics-cameras-lights from the period. studio colour monitor, Safgan DB
A USA 'How to' book. 8 scope (intermittent fault), TVT 432
Contact Dicky Howett. 01371 820155, 70cms vision TX, Sanson HD tripod,
Email: dicky.howett@btinternet.com TS 129V HF rig with 100W amp.,
TELEVISION: The First 50 years.
Geddes/Bussey. 1986. Well illustrated Kenwood TR7600 2M rig, external
booklet produced by the National camera housings (2).
Museum of Photography, Film &
Television. 5 CQ-TV mags 60 to date, some earlier,
and various handbooks.

No reasonable offers refused. Can Dandy, G4YPB, 8 Woodbury Park,
deliver in midlands or Wales if required Holy Heath, Worcester, WR6 6NT. Tel
(cymraeg os oes cyfle!) Contact Bryan 01905 620616
Wanted
Instruction book and service manual for one. Contact Ray Hill on 01989
a Sony U-Matic, model VO-7630. 762839, email
Contact Dave Hazell on 01793 765390 RAYandNEIL@rayhilltv.freeserve.co.
uk
Wanted: Does anyone have any

information regarding converting a 9"
Sony RGB veiwdata terminal monitor,
PYE Mk 3 viewfinder hood plus a model No KTM-1000UB (Viedotex
VAROTAL 5 ZOOM LENSE or other Wanted: Service manuals/technical info Terminal KTX-1000UB) for use with
long types. Also wanted, U-matic or what have you for the following the Amiga computer, I have the correct
portable tapes 30 minutes length. Clean gear. Cossor 1035 MK 3 scope, connection plug and diagram. I would
or new condition. I know that there's at Tektronix 502 scope, RCA Audio be most grateful for any info. Contact
least one of each of the above listed Chanalyst type 170a, Telequipment 405 George Mayo. G4EUF on 01530
hiding away in BATC land. All calls line pattern generator type WG4, HP 242378 or e-mail:
answered in strictest confidence. Cash 412A Valve Voltmeter type 412A. and george.mayo@virgin.net
offered to those of a nervous for the following 1/2" EIAJ VTR's
disposition. Contact Panasonic NV3160 and NV8030. also
dicky.howett@btinternet.com or ring require a curcuit for a Marconi (KB)
01371 820155 picture monitor type BD851 (have
already tried the BATC library for this
one). Is alleged to have come from the Tube wanted for JVC Camera Model
KB museum. If you can help please GX-N5E. Tube type Matsushita 4077c.
contact: Terry Martini on: 0207 702 QTHR. Contact Brian Alderson,
WANTED View finder for Hitachi FP- 8774 or Email: phone 01609 772702. e mail
Z31E also lens and cables for same audiovisual@callnetuk.com. Snail m3kjx@free.uk
camera Information required for mail to: 122b Cannon Street Road,
ROLEC PMX62 audio mixer and Whitechapel London E1 2LH
power supply or circuit details to build
Index of Advertisers
BATC advertising rates ..........................................7 HS Publications.................................................... 33

BATC Publications...............................................19 Members Services ................................................ 19
Confidential Communications Ltd .......................40 Members Services Sale ........................................ 17
GB3XT Kits and Bits .............................................9 'Repeater' magazine.............................................. 40
GH Engineering....................................................46 S. Marshall ........................................................... 33

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What are some of the topics covered in the magazine?

What are some of the topics covered in the magazine?

What services does the BATC (British Amateur Television Club) provide to members?

What services does the BATC (British Amateur Television Club) provide to members?

Contents

2000 by the BATC CQ-TV 190 Page 1

BATC Chairman: Trevor Brown, G8CJS

BATC General Secretary: Paul Marshall, G8MJW

BATC Hon. Treasurer: Brian Summers, G8GQS

CQ-TV Magazine: Editor Ian Pawson

CQ-TV and BATC web masters

Page 2 CQ-TV 190 2000 by the BATC

2000 by the BATC CQ-TV 190 Page 3

The BATC ENIGMA CONVENTION and

Red Cross in attendance, Cadet forces as guides.

Page 4 CQ-TV 190 2000 by the BATC

Parking and Wheel Chair Access

Visiting Bletchley Park by Public Transport

Visiting Bletchley Park by Road

2000 by the BATC CQ-TV 190 Page 5

From the South West

From the South

A map of Bletchley Park

Copyright 2000 The Bletchley Park Trust

Page 6 CQ-TV 190 2000 by the BATC

CQ-TV Commercial advertising rates

Free Internet Dial-

E-mail: sales@caladan.co.uk Fax: 01933 666972, Web site: http://www.caladan.co.uk/batc

2000 by the BATC CQ-TV 190 Page 7

TM531 - A Packet of interference?

Page 8 CQ-TV 190 2000 by the BATC

The very popular Dove RX / IF kit.

Gunnmod2. The best selling Gunn diode or DRO

24cms pre amp.

2000 by the BATC CQ-TV 190 Page 9

Page 10 CQ-TV 190 2000 by the BATC

2000 by the BATC CQ-TV 190 Page 11

Page 12 CQ-TV 190 2000 by the BATC

New Digital Test Card

2000 by the BATC CQ-TV 190 Page 13

The key to the QuArc approach is

Each object is a self-contained

In the data-driven processing

For each receiver, there is a

Visit the new CQ-TV web site at: -

2000 by the BATC CQ-TV 190 Page 15

Digital television in the USA

Page 16 CQ-TV 190 2000 by the BATC

Digital Amateur TV tests started in Germany

UNREPEATABLE CLEARANCE SALE

2000 by the BATC CQ-TV 190 Page 17

Video and I2C Circuit Boards/Components

RX, TX and SSTV PCBs and General Components

Page 18 CQ-TV 190 2000 by the BATC

Circuit Details can be found as follows:

Name Mem No.

PLEASE MAKE CHEQUES PAYABLE TO BATC.

2000 by the BATC CQ-TV 190 Page 19

Probably the most difficult concept for